Harry Potter: Treasure Hunter
by Ryder10
Summary: Post Hogwarts, Post Voldemort. Harry Potter is a treasure hunter for the International Confederation of Wizards. Arriving at his newest dig he finds a Gringotts Curse Breaker has beaten him there. HP/GW
1. Act 1: Chap 1: A Guy, A Girl, and A Tomb

Chapter 1: A Guy, A Girl, and a Tomb

The small hole in the wall bar in Casablanca, Morocco had seen better days. The door had been a vibrant red at one point, but years of neglect and harsh desert weather had left it dull and chipped. Whole swathes of paint had been torn away exposing the cracked and aged wood underneath, there were visible cracks in the wall around the hinges where it had been ripped up as the door was forcibly knocked down and replaced several times.

Inside the lighting was poor, even at three in the afternoon only a solitary beam of sunlight accompanied the light ocean breeze that drifted through the only window. Two old dirty lamps did little to help the lighting situation, seeming to only exist so the old, hunched bartender with a scarred face and bald head could read the labels on the liquor bottles. Not that he needed to, it was his bar and he knew where every bottle and dirty glass was, along with the old shotgun hidden under the register.

At this time of day the bar only had four customers, two shifty men, faces hidden under cloaks most likely discussing something illegal in their hushed voices. A patron from the previous night, curled up under a table, was still unconscious or dead, the owner would figure it out later. Finally, there was a young black haired man with alert emerald green eyes. The young man had entered the bar silently twenty minutes previously, ordered a bourbon on the rocks, and sat in a corner booth that gave him a view of the entire bar as he sipped quietly on his drink clearly waiting for someone.

The bartender had woken one of his girls, really the only reason people came to the bar still, but the young man had smiled politely and rebuffed the girls advances. She had returned to the bartender with an apologetic smile and a shrug of the shoulders before heading into the back room where the other three girls were just starting to wake up.

The young man had been waiting in the same spot for almost an hour and was on his second bourbon. To most people it would appear he was waiting patiently and relaxed for whoever he was expecting but the old bartender had spent decades learning to read people. The man, maybe twenty was definitely starting to get impatient. His leg would bounce nervously every once in a while before he made a conscious effort to stop it, his second drink remained untouched as one finger circled the rim of the glass, and his gaze would only leave the door to the bar to glance down at the watch on his wrist.

At four thirty two the door to the bar once again slammed open. The light streaming in around the figure in the entryway momentarily blinding the occupants of the bar. Once the man had closed the door behind him the bartender could make out a decently tall, good looking man with long black hair and bright grey eyes. A permanent smirk seemed glued to the man's face as his gaze took in the entire bar before finally settling on the young man in the corner booth. Upon seeing him the smirk turned into a full blown smile and the man crossed the small bar in five long strides, signaling to the bartender to bring him a drink and sliding into the seat across from the young man.

The bartender popped the cap off a beer bottle and poured it into a smudged glass before handing it to the girl and beckoning towards the table.

* * *

"Har-"

"You're late," Harry cut him off.

Sirius glanced at his watch and frowned, "I'm two minutes late, I don't think that's any reason to get angry."

Harry rolled his eyes, "You said to be here at two thirty. I was actually running ten minutes late, but I get here to find you no where to be seen," Harry said. "Did you forget to change your watch for the time zones?"

Sirius glanced at his watch sheepishly and started turning one of the knobs, "I, uh, I may have."

Before either could speak again the 'waitress' walked up to drop a pint of beer in front of Sirius, "Is there anything else I can do for you today?" she asked eyeing Harry wantonly.

"I'm good thanks," Harry answered not even looking at the woman. This time it was Sirius' turn to roll his eyes at his godson before putting on his most charming smile.

"Not right now luv, but maybe once this stick in the mud and I are done you and I can have a nice conversation."

The woman's eyes moved from Harry to Sirius looking him over from head to toe. Coming to a decision she nodded and sauntered back towards the bar, where the bartender gave her a short nod and she perched herself on a barstool to wait for Harry to leave.

"You know she's a prostitute right?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Of course. What better way to fritter away my parents money then on hookers and booze," Sirius answered with a lopsided smile. It was only because Harry had known him so long that he noticed the hint of anger and sadness in his eyes.

"You could find a nice woman, settle down and have kids. I'm sure that would also anger your parents, to know you're happy," Harry answered seriously.

Sirius barked a laugh and slapped his hand on the table. "I am happy Harry," he said genuinely. "Your dad and Remus were always the ones destined for families and settling down. Me? I need to be free to spread my oats and what not," he said with his trademark smile. "Besides, what about you? When are you gonna find a girl and settle down?" he asked trying to turn the tables on his godson.

Harry looked thoughtful for a moment and took a sip of his drink, "One day, when I find the right girl. But for now I'm still young and attractive, unlike some people."

Sirius scowled at him as Harry laughed quietly to himself, "I look exceptionally well for my age, and I'm not even that old! Forty is the new twenty after all." Sirius puffed himself up, turning to throw a wink at the woman still waiting at the bar for him, "Enough poking fun at me, do you want to hear the new lead I got?"

"Alright what is it? I hope it's something good I was on the verge of finding the final resting place of the Dark Wizard Onhomet," Harry said.

"Onhomet!?" Sirius said. "He's chump change compared to the lead I have," he paused for dramatic effect, obviously hoping Harry would ask what he had found. Harry simply continued to stare impassively at Sirius until he finally deflated a bit, "It's Merlin. I have a lead on Merlin's Tomb."

This finally got a reaction from Harry, who leaned forward, his eyes widening slightly and the corner of his lips tugging up in a small smile, "You're sure?"

"Our contact in Gringott's is mostly positive," Sirius answered. "Apparently the good work we did a few years back ending all those ancient and noble bloodlines left quite a few defunct vaults. Vaults filled with old family relics. Weapons, armor, jewelry, and books. Lots of books, and quite a few journals from ancestors who lived during exciting times."

"According to our contact the goblins have been backlogged inventorying all the vaults that found themselves without owners. On top of that many of the books required translation so it's been very time consuming to go through each book. One of their researchers translated a journal from a contemporary of Merlin who helped build Merlin's Tomb and very clearly notated the location of the Tomb," Sirius pulled out two pieces of parchment and slid them across the table to Harry.

Harry pulled the pages to himself and started reading quickly. "Normandy?" he mumbled quietly to himself. "No wonder no one ever found it, they've been tearing apart Scotland and England looking, no one thought to check France."

"I was surprised as well, but it's a good hiding spot, the areas a forest still, the muggles avoided tearing it down for houses, I guess it was because of the magical wards. It's also far enough outside of Paris and other magical settlements that a wizard wouldn't stumble upon it," Sirius explained sliding over a map of the area.

"But you said Gringott's found this info, and it's close enough to London they could apparate, they must have a team already on site," Harry said.

Sirius grinned deviously as he leaned over the table and lowered his voice, "That's the best part. After you beat them to the last four tombs and claimed the treasure they've become paranoid that there's a leak of some kind. Our contact says that until the site is verified they're only sending one Curse Breaker, some kid fresh out of their training. That way they know that only a few people know about the Tomb and no one can leak it to you and the ICW."

"So there's only one Curse Breaker, and they're a rookie?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"Yep and if you leave now, you might even beat them to the Tomb. Our contact said the poor guy wouldn't be leaving until tomorrow."

"It's already after five, plane will take about four hours, unless you managed to grab me an international portkey?" Harry asked already standing to leave.

"Sorry kiddo, you're stuck going the muggle way."

"Can't be helped I suppose," Harry said with a sigh. "Enjoy your night Sirius, I'll give you a call on your mirror once I find the Tomb."

"Cya kiddo," Sirius called as Harry passed the woman at the bar who started moving back towards where Sirius was sitting leering at her.

* * *

Harry had arrived in France late in the evening. After an uneventful stay in a small inn on the edge of the forest supposedly hiding Merlin's Tomb he got an early start. Morning fog still blanketed the forest floor as Harry picked his way through the woods, occasionally using the point me spell to make sure he was going the right way. About a mile into the forest though he stopped needing the spell as the ambient magic in the air grew thicker, making the very air seem more alive.

Any wizard could subconsciously feel ambient magic, especially in magical places like Hogwarts or Diagon Alley. However, Curse Breakers were trained to feel the magic in the air and follow it to it's source. It was a good way to find the entrance to a Tomb, but it could also be honed so that a veteran Curse Breaker could actually distinguish the various wards and charms being used allowing them to identify danger. It was this sense, honed over seven years of first avoiding and then hunting Voldemort that led Harry to the very edge of the wards hiding the Tomb.

Unfortunately he wasn't the first one there.

Knowing the Curse Breaker from Gringotts had a good chance of beating him there, or even arriving at the same time Harry had approached the wards with a silencing charm on his feet and wearing his invisibility cloak. With his precautions in place he was able to get within ten feet of the Gringott's Curse Breaker without drawing any attention.

It helped that the red haired woman was completely focused on the complex runic sequence hanging in the air before her. Harry was slightly surprised to see a woman as Sirius hadn't mentioned the rookie being female. Curse Breaking was known as a boys club, the women who would be ok spending much of their life living out of tents and in the wilderness were put off the job after meeting their first few Curse Breakers. The men were usually gruff, vulgar, and in most cases not afraid to torment their female co-workers. Harry knew of only four female Curse Breakers by reputation and had never actually met them.

Taking a moment to study the woman, Harry's eyes trailed over her bright red, almost orange hair which was pulled back into a tight ponytail. She was facing away from him and he couldn't make out her facial features, but her ponytail exposed a long pale neck covered in freckles that followed along the curve of her neck and disappeared under her collar. She was lithe, in the muggle world they would say she had a runner's build, but Harry could identify someone else who had spent their life on a broom. Her arms had taut wiry muscles, and below a shapely butt were two long well defined legs.

His silent approach gave him the opportunity to observe the complex runic pattern hanging in the air before the woman. He was mildly impressed by the complex way the different runes weaved together. Anyone without an in depth knowledge of runes and Curse Breaking would never be able to breach them. Harry caught on to the pattern the woman had been using the break through and was only mildly impressed that it was probably the same pattern he would have chosen.

Even as he watched the girl highlighted one rune with her wand and started to rotate it slowly, changing the very structure of the wards. Once she had finished turning the first Rune she began drawing in a new rune, earning a raised eyebrow from the unseen Harry. Trying to add a new Rune to an older runic pattern could be disastrous without careful consideration and a lot of raw magical power. As the girl finished drawing the new rune there was a flash from her wand as she began pouring her own magical power into it.

Now Harry was seriously impressed. Not only was the girl doing things a veteran Curse Breaker wouldn't try she was doing it successfully and the power radiating off of her as she fused the rune into the wards was intoxicating. Magic like any other sense a person possessed could be pleasant or offensive. Every magical couple in history had compatible magical signatures, just like most magical rivals had magical signatures that caused irritation when in close proximity.

Feeling this girl's magical signature as she channeled it to power the rune caused Harry to flush and his blood head south as his breath caught in his throat.

Shaking his head to clear the sudden haze of arousal, Harry watched as the Rune glowed brightly before melding perfectly with the rest of the runic display. After giving it a moment make sure the Rune wouldn't be rejected the girl reached out tentatively with her hand letting out a whoop of joy as it passed unharmed through where the wards should be.

Casting a few more detection spells the girl stepped through the hole she had just created in the wards and began moving across the seemingly empty field they had been standing on the edge of. Harry started to follow her only pausing a moment to take a closer look at the runic sequence. She had done exactly what he would have done to bypass the wards. By adding the Rune she had, where she had, it created an opening in the wards big enough for a person to walk through so long as they knew where to enter.

Looking at the runic sequence a stray thought tugged at the edge of Harry's consciousness. He didn't have time to contemplate what was off about the wards though and without another glance he stepped carefully through the Wards and followed the girl silently. He couldn't let her get too far ahead since he had to follow her path as closely as possible. Following another Curse Breaker into a tomb while hidden was extremely dangerous as he could not cast any detection charms without risking his own detection. So instead he had to rely on the girl and follow the safe path she made for herself to the Tomb.

It only took a few minutes to realize that something was off. In a Tomb this heavily protected there should be traps littering the ground for any would be thieves. Even though the girl cast the detection charms every few seconds it had so far detected nothing. Harry was glad to see the girl had also noticed this and begun to slow down, mixing a more powerful detection charm in with her normal ones. Yet even so when they had reached the entrance to the tomb itself, an indistinct looking cave, her charms had not detected any traps.

The entrance to the cave was clean of all protections as well. Harry's own brow was furrowed in confusion at the lack of protections and he was glad to see a tension growing in the girls back and posture. Entering the cave proved far too easy and soon Harry was following the bobbing glow of the girls wand as they moved into the Tomb itself.

The cave opening narrowed from being two people wide to only one wide after a few meters leaving very little room for people to maneuver. The girl continued casting detection spells but continued to find nothing. It was as they were coming to a turn in the path that Harry saw a rune engraved on the wall as the girls light illuminated it. The girl missed it since the magic in the rune had been burned out leaving it inert.

Harry paused to study the rune when several things happened at once. The girl yelped, the light from her wand went out, and then there was a thud and the cracking of bone. Harry froze, unsure of what had happened and not wanting to get caught in whatever the girl had triggered. The silence following the bone cracking was broken by the girl letting out a string of curses that would make a sailor blush.

 _'Well she's not dead at least,_ ' Harry thought as he edged toward the corner the girl had disappeared around.

The sound of someone shuffling around on the ground preceded the light from the girls wand reappearing. Rounding the corner slowly Harry found the path ended abruptly in a ten foot drop into a pit. The pit was about four meters long with only a thin ledge along the right hand side allowing someone to pass around it. A dimly glowing green rune on the far side of the pit clued Harry into the illusion charm that had been in place to hide the pit. The same illusion that had tricked the girl now sitting against the wall of the pit cradling her clearly broken wrist.

The girl whimpered in pain as she tried to pick up her wand with her good hand. The broken wrist had apparently been her wand hand, so with her off hand she practiced the movements for healing her broken wrist, but she couldn't quite get the movement down.

 _'Now's your chance. just shuffle along the edge, get to the inner chamber and grab the loot. Even if she can't heal herself the goblins will send another team tomorrow when they don't hear from her,'_ the more rational part of Harry's mind tried to argue. But he had already made up his mind. Sighing he pulled off the cloak, going completely unnoticed by the girl as she examined her wrist.

"Uh, hello?" Harry called out.

The girl jumped slightly, tensing as the movement sent pain through her wrist. She looked up, her wide brown eyes meeting Harry's. Harry's breath caught in his throat as he took in her features for the first time. Brown eyes, a thin nose, pale skin, and freckles everywhere. Her red lips were parted in surprise, but quickly turned to a scowl.

"Who the hell are you!? Did my idiot brother send you?" she snapped, glaring at Harry.

Harry paused surprised by her anger, "I'm Harry, Harry Evans. I have no idea who your brother is and he didn't send me."

"Then what the hell are you doing here?" she snapped, aiming her wand with a shaking hand, Harry doubted she could hit anything the way her arm was moving.

"I came to find Merlin's Tomb but you were here first, so I figured I'd follow you and hope you messed up," Harry answered honestly.

The girl scowled at him, "You've been following me!" she demanded. Harry could almost see the gears moving in her brain as she processed everything he'd said, until her eyes widened and then narrowed angrily, "You're the treasure thief!"

"Treasure thief?" Harry asked. "Is that what the Goblin's have been calling me?"

"Yes the thief who has been breaking into tombs before the Curse Breakers and stealing all the treasure!"

"I haven't stolen anything, I got to those Tombs first and opened them. Since I opened them I had claim to all the treasure inside. You're the one working for those greedy gold hounds!" Harry retorted, not liking being referred to as a thief.

"I'm sure you're not making any profit off of your finds," she snapped sarcastically.

Harry took a deep breath not wanting to reveal too much of his work. Instead he cast a cushioning charm at the floor of the pit and dropped down next to her, "We can argue about my motives or I can heal your wrist and we can continue to the central chamber together."

The girl looked torn for a moment before glancing down at her wrist which had turned an alarming blue and black by this point. "It's my claim," she said angrily.

"We can split it evenly, you take half for the goblins and I'll take my half. Any goblin weaponry is yours, I know how ridiculous the knife-ears can get over their precious swords," Harry said amicably.

"I did all the work getting here," the girl said angrily. "Seventy-five / Twenty-five."

"You broke through one set of wards and then fell into the first active trap you came across. If you want I can just leave you here and claim all of it for myself," Harry responded.

The girl glared at him, before huffing and gingerly holding out her broken wrist, "Fine."

"Glad we could come to an agreement," Harry said before waving his wand a few times, healing her wrist and clearing up the bruises. "That will still be tender for a bit so be gentle."

The girl glared at him again as she grabbed her wand off the ground. Harry only smirked as she conjured a ladder and leaned it against the side of pit before climbing up it.

"Nice view," Harry muttered, but apparently the girl heard him.

"Pig!" she called out causing him to laugh.

"Sorry, but it's true," Harry said, in the faint wand light he couldn't be sure if the girl was turning red in anger or blushing at his comment.

"Arse," she muttered before turning and resuming her walk down the tunnel. This time Harry had his own wand out and was able to cast detection charms as well as provide his own light source.

"You know I never got your name," he said as he paused to study another inert rune carved into the wall.

"It's Ginny," she answered quickly casting another detection charm.

"A pleasure to meet you Ginny."

* * *

The central chamber of Merlins Tomb was circular with a diameter of ten meters. The exact center of the room was raised up to about waist height with three large steps leading up to the dais. A series of mirrors reflected sunlight from a hole at the top of the room so that the dais was illuminated in a beam of light. The only problem was that the chamber was completely empty.

Ginny and Harry could only look around the room in shocked disappointment.

"It's empty," Ginny stated.

Harry sighed, "I thought it would be."

"What!?" Ginny asked. "You thought it would be empty?"

"Someone else has clearly been here before us," Harry said and pointed to her foot. "You're standing on a booby trap that's been rendered inert. The tunnel down here had one every three meters or so."

Ginny lifted her foot and looked at the runic symbol that was engraved in the stone there. "I didn't even notice," she muttered quietly. "How come they didn't appear with the detection charms?"

"They're inert, the spell is only meant to detect active magic. These runes are just carvings on the stone," Harry said. "They've all been deactivated by someone else. I figured we'd either find a corpse or well… this."

"Well this is a great end to my first actual assignment," Ginny huffed before stepping further into the chamber. Harry gave her a sympathetic smile as he continued to study the writing engraved on the wall of the chamber.

"My celtic is pretty rusty, but I'm pretty sure these engravings are a biographical account of Merlin's life," Harry said as he traced one of the words with his finger. "Granted we already have a few such accounts but this one could be unique," he said trying to cheer Ginny up.

Ginny glanced at the engravings, but quickly returned to wandering the room. "Maybe, but the goblins were really hoping for some artifacts to study," she said as she started to circle the dais in the middle of the room. "My boss specifically mentioned Exca- sweet Merlin!" she said suddenly.

Harry looked over to her to find her on the opposite side of the dais staring at something on the floor, a mix of horror and disgust on her face. As he rounded the dais from the opposite side Harry found what had caused Ginny to cry out in surprise. Hidden from view by the dais was an emaciated corpse, dressed in blood red robes, thinning patches of brown hair on its head, and its hand clutching a wand. A patch on the front of the man's robes, right above his heart showed a golden circle within a triangle bisected by a straight line. The Deathly Hallows.

"Well that would explain where the treasure is," Harry stated sullenly.

"What?" Ginny asked finally snapping out of her shock.

"The symbol on his robes and the color or the robes," Harry said pointing them out. "He was a follower of Grindelwald. And if he's here if means that the person who beat us here was Grindelwald," he explained.

"So then why didn't anyone know about this tomb?" Ginny asked. "If Grindelwald found it wouldn't he have told people?"

"Grindelwald spent most of the forties searching Europe for magical artifacts. It's rumored he was looking for the Deathly Hallows, but they're just a myth. Instead he collected hundreds if not thousands of magical artifacts and hid them away in a secret Vault. Curse Breakers, Treasure Hunters, Collectors, and anyone looking to get rich have searched for Grindelwald's Vault for fifty years but no one ever found it," Harry explained.

"Anyone in Grindelwald's circle who knew the location of the Vault died during the final battles in 1945. Grindelwald himself took the secret to his grave," Harry said. "I'm surprised you didn't learn about this in your Curse Breaking classes, it's one of the biggest mysteries of the last century."

Ginny's face definitely colored red in embarrassment this time and she pointedly looked down at her feet. "I, uh, I wasn't very good at the historical part of Curse Breaking," she said. "I almost failed that part completely, a friend of mine helped me study and I just barely passed."

Harry nodded sympathetically, "I can understand that, it definitely wasn't my favorite subject in school. I only really started understanding it when I could put it into context with Curse Breaking." He smiled, "I still couldn't tell you anything about the Goblin Rebellions or why the witch burnings of the middle ages were important."

Ginny smiled, the blush on her cheeks fading. As silence once again descended on them she kneeled next to the corpse and gingerly began searching the dead man's pockets. After a moment of searching she pulled an old leather bound journal from the robes inner pocket. A name and some other words in German were inscribed on the front of the journal. Ginny stood up with her prize and took a step back onto a piece of floor that sunk down under her foot. A loud grinding noise filled the room as ancient stonework behind the walls began to move for the first time in centuries.

"GET DOWN!" Harry shouted as he sprinted forward and tackled Ginny to the floor. As they hit the ground a whistling filled the air followed by several pings as something bounced off the stone walls.

Harry lay on top of Ginny shielding her with his body as silence again descended on the Tomb. Not moving Harry started mentally checking himself for any injuries, aware that the adrenaline surge he just experienced may have dulled the pain. Finding no injuries he looked down at Ginny, realizing only now how close they were. Her brown eyes were wide as they stared up at him, a hint of a blush tinging her cheeks.

"A-Are you ok?" he asked, cringing slightly when his voice cracked. This seemed to break the tension as Ginny giggled.

"I bumped my head when you tackled me, but I think I'm fine," she answered. "Why did you tackle me?"

"When you stepped on that piece of floor it activated a trap," Harry said. "I'm guessing it was an old muggle one which is why the charm didn't detect it."

"Are we still in any danger?" Ginny asked, and Harry saw the same mischievous glint in her eye that Sirius always had.

"No. I think we should be fine, just don't touch that spot on the floor anymore," Harry answered, suddenly wary of the look in her eyes.

"Alright," she glanced pointedly down at the fact that he was still laying on top of her. "Do you think we can stand up then?"

Harry's eyes widened and he quickly rolled off of her and stood offering her hand. "R-Right sorry," he said quickly with a nervous laugh.

"It's alright Harry," she said, taking his hand as he pulled her up off the ground smoothly. "So what did the trap do?"

Harry pointed to the wall directly behind where she had been standing a moment before. Embedded in a crack in the stone wall was an arrow, while on the ground below it were the shattered fragments of several more arrows.

"The trigger you stepped on activated the crossbows hidden behind the wall. If you'd still been standing there you would have been skewered," he said. "It's an old trap muggles would add to their tombs, but I've never actually seen it in a magical tomb before."

Ginny gently picked up one of the broken arrows, touching the pointed arrowhead with her finger. "It's still sharp…" she muttered to herself. "Thank you Harry, it looks like you saved my life again," she said giving him a smile that left a warm feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Anytime Ginny," he said, "So what's in that book you found?" he asked quickly, hoping to stave off an awkward silence.

"Oh right!" Ginny said picking up the journal from where she had dropped it and flipping it open. "It looks like it's all in German or one of those languages," she said after flipping through it for a moment. "Do you know how to read it?"

"I can get by in most European languages, but usually I have to use a translation spell..." Harry answered.

"And those don't work on written words," Ginny finished for him.

"Exactly. I have some contacts who can translate it, but it will take some time."

"I have a friend who can translate it…" Ginny said slowly, "she works for Gringotts as well, only in the research department."

"Can she meet us for lunch somewhere?" Harry asked. "I can't go in Gringotts," he explained at her questioning look.

"You don't trust me to get the book translated and meet you somewhere?" she questioned with a hint of anger.

"Would you trust me?" he answered.

She stared at him for a moment in silence, clearly weighing her options, "Fair point. But I'm only letting you tag along because you saved my life."

"Twice," Harry added.

"That pit doesn't count, I would have gotten out sooner or later," she rebutted as they headed back towards the entrance to the tomb.

"If you say so," Harry answered with an amused smile.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading, please review and let me know what you think.  
Edited 11/6/2015: Mostly grammatical and me learning proper dialogue punctuation.**


	2. Act 1: Chap 2: Lunch and a Passport

Chapter 2: Lunch and a Passport

By the time Harry and Ginny got out of the Tomb it was just after one in the afternoon. Ginny sent a patronus message to her contact asking her to meet them at a muggle pub in London. Harry had argued for the muggle pub since they were trying to keep their discovery secret for now and Ginny had reluctantly agreed. A quick apparition later had Harry and Ginny sitting at a secluded table in a small football pub. The lunch time crowd was in full swing when they arrived so there was little chance of them being overheard, even so Harry set a minor ward to jumble their words to any eavesdroppers.

Ginny had insisted on buying the first round, claiming that she owed Harry for saving her life. The little voice in the back of his mind that had been getting louder all morning greatly approved of Ginny getting a pint for herself instead of one of those fruity drinks girls seemed to enjoy. A harried lunch shift waitress stopped by their table briefly to get their lunch order and then disappeared back into the crowd.

"So Ginny," Harry started taking a drag of his pint. "Why Curse Breaking?"

Ginny studied him for a second a wrinkle forming on her brow, "Because I'm a woman?"

Harry returned her stare evenly, "Honestly, yes. I've only heard of a few women actually sticking with it. Most are scared off after a week or so and only a handful make it through their training."

Ginny held his stare for a moment, and Harry had the odd feeling that she was making an important decision about him. Finally she broke the stare and sighed while looking at two guys in football jerseys laughing loudly while watching a replay on the telly.

"Curse Breaking was actually a fall back job for me," Ginny said. "I had a starting spot on the Holyhead Harpies."

Harry's mouth dropped open in shock, "You were a Harpy!?"

"Yes, but I was injured in a scrimmage before the official start of my rookie season," she answered lifting a hand to trace a thin pale scar just under the hairline on the right side of her head. "I lost my peripheral vision in my right eye after someone on the other team checked me into the stands. It doesn't affect me at all really in my day to day life, but a chaser needs her peripheral to see while on the field."

Harry wasn't sure what to say and this was clearly a sore subject for Ginny. So instead he reached over the table resting his hand on hers. "I'm truly sorry Ginny. I know what it's like to dream about doing something for your entire life and then having it snatched back at the last second," he finally said.

Ginny's eyes met his as she seemed to weigh his words carefully. "Really?" she asked.

"I grew up in England," Harry said. "My parents died when I was young, and my Godfather raised me, with some help," he added with a fond smile. "So I spent my entire childhood growing up listening to my Godfather and his friends telling me stories about Hogwarts, my parents, and all their adventures there. Just before I turned eleven my Godfather got a, er, a job offer in America and it was too good to pass up. I ended up getting home schooled for two years before enrolling in an American school. I understand why I couldn't go to Hogwarts but I always dreamed about how it would be different if I had gone."

"Maybe we would have been friends," Ginny said, a kind smile on her face. "What house were your parents in?"

"Gryffindor, I hope I would have been there too."

"I was a Gryffindor!" Ginny said happily. "My whole family has been Gryffindor's for generations."

"I never did get your last name," Harry said curiously.

"Oh! Weasley, Ginny Weasley."

Harry's eyebrows rose as everything suddenly fit into place. "Of course, I really should have figured it out earlier. You look a lot like your mother, I met your parents a few times through my Godfather," he said without thinking.

"Really?" Ginny asked. "Who's your godfather?"

"Oh uh-" Harry fumbled for an answer, the entire wizarding world knew that Sirius was his godfather. Luckily before his pause became too apparent a woman about his age with a head of bushy brown hair appeared at the table.

"Ginny!" The woman said startling Ginny as she hugged her tightly.

"Hello Hermione," Ginny said once she had recovered from the surprise hug. "Hermione this is Harry Evans. Harry, Hermione Granger."

"A pleasure to meet you Ms. Granger," Harry said standing and extending his hand. A glance at Ginny showed that she hadn't forgotten their conversation and would be expecting an answer once they were alone again.

"Please call me Hermione," she said taking his hand.

"Then please call me Harry," he said as Hermione settled into her seat. "It's my round, would you like anything Hermione?"

"A water is fine, I have to return to work after this," she answered. He glanced at Ginny who simply motioned toward her empty pint glass.

"I'll be back shortly."

He made his way across the pub to the bar and signaled the bartender while leaving the two empty glasses. Glancing back he saw Hermione and Ginny deep in conversation, Hermione's brow furrowed worriedly while Ginny waved off whatever she was saying. Hermione glanced at Harry and met his eyes for a second before smiling and saying something to Ginny whose eyes widened as she shook her head negatively. When Ginny's cheeks started to redden Harry began to suspect they might be talking about him.

"- trust him Hermione," Ginny was saying as he returned to the table with their drinks. "Thank you Harry."

Harry nodded in acknowledgment, "Has Ginny explained why you're here?"

"No, and it is rather peculiar to be requesting a meeting in a muggle pub," Hermione said looking intently at Ginny.

"Leaky would have been fine with me but Harry wanted to avoid magical areas," Ginny answered with a shrug. "Afraid someone will try to spy on us."

"Why would someone spy on you? Did you find Merlin's Tomb!?" she asked with a gasp.

Ginny glanced around her to see if anyone was watching them, "Quiet Hermione, no need to make the muggles curious."

"We did," Harry said simply.

" _I_ did," Ginny corrected. "You just snuck in behind me," she added with a glare in his direction.

Harry rolled his eyes and cut Hermione off as she opened her mouth to ask a question, "It was empty, someone got there before us and cleared it out."

"Really? Then why has no one ever come forward before now?" Hermione asked.

"Based on the body we found in the Tomb, I'm pretty sure it was Grindelwald," Harry said.

Hermione nodded, "That would make sense, no one knows exactly what artifacts are hidden in his Vault."

"Hermione we need your help to translate a journal we found on the corpse in the Tomb. It might have a clue as to where Grindelwald's Vault is," Ginny said pulling the journal out of her pocket and sliding it across the table to Hermione.

Hermione's eyes lit up in interest as she pulled the journal closer to her and ran her fingers over the name engraved on the cover. "Matthias Lehman, First Lieutenant of Lord Grindelwald," she read.

"First Lieutenant? Why would Grindelwald just leave his body in the Tomb like that? He sounds important enough that Grindelwald would want his body reclaimed," Harry said, his brow creasing as he tried to figure it out. "Hermione go to the last entry, what's the date?"

Hermione flipped to the last entry in the journal, her eyes darting to the top line, "5th of June 1944."

"He probably got left behind when the Allies invaded," Harry said and Hermione nodded in agreement, her eyes already scanning the final entry.

"When who invaded?" Ginny asked, her eyes moving between the two questioningly.

"They really should teach basic muggle history at Hogwarts," Harry said. "During World War II the Allies invaded France on the 6th of June 1944. It was a giant invasion, hundreds of thousands of men all storming the beaches of Normandy. If Grindelwald and his men were in the Tomb during the invasion they may have had to leave quickly, probably left our friend there in favor of carrying treasure."

Ginny nodded and they both fell silent as Hermione poured over the journal, flipping between pages seemingly at random. At some point Hermione had pulled out a piece of parchment and a self inking quill and was furiously taking notes. While Hermione was scribbling notes the waitress returned with their food setting down the plates while giving Hermione's parchment and quill a curious look. When Hermione confirmed she didn't want any food the waitress shrugged and left the table.

"You never did tell me why you became a Curse Breaker after your accident Ginny," Harry said as he picked up some of his chips. He ignored Hermione accidentally poking a hole through her parchment in surprise.

"My older brother Bill is a Curse Breaker. He's mostly a desk worker at Gringotts since the war and his daughter but he always used to tell me stories of his time in Egypt. We even visited him there the summer after my first year in Hogwarts," she answered with a fond smile and a faraway look in her eyes. "After the accident I was pretty depressed and he would come by our family home every few days to check on me. After a month he brought an application to the Gringott's Curse Breaker training program and told me to fill it out. I'd actually chosen Curse Breaking during our career counseling in my fifth year, and since Quidditch was out… well here I am."

Harry noticed that Hermione had almost completely stopped writing while Ginny was talking although her eyes were still fixed on the parchment in front of her. He wondered if Ginny was really so secretive that even this story was enough to get her friends undivided attention.

"What about you? Why choose treasure hunting?" Ginny asked. "The money?"

"Well, yes the money is nice," Harry said giving Ginny his most charming smile. "But really it's a job where I get to go on adventures, and travel to exotic locations. I was in Casablanca yesterday, Algiers the day before, and China last week," he didn't mean to sound like he was bragging he just genuinely enjoyed the travel. "It's also challenging. I was seriously impressed with the way you bypassed the wards around the Tomb by the way. It's exactly what I would have done," he said and Ginny smiled happily at him making his stomach flip.

Hermione had given up all pretense of translating the journal as her eyes darted back and forth between Harry and Ginny a smile forming on her lips as the two talked. As Harry began to ask Ginny questions about her brothers Hermione returned to the journal, occasionally glancing up as Harry or Ginny would laugh about something the other had said.

"So Fred and George got grounded for a month for turning Ron's teddy bear into a spider," Ginny was saying. "But actually it had been my firs-"

"Oh my!" Hermione interrupted Ginny's story. "I-I don't believe it!" She said loudly, drawing some attention from the nearby tables.

"Hermione quiet," Ginny said looking at the group that had turned in their direction. "What did you find?"

Hermione slid the journal over to Ginny. "Read that," she said pointing at an underlined segment.

"Grindelwald's gewölbe an gelegen 83471 Berchtesgaden, Deutschland," Ginny read brokenly, needing Hermione to tell her how to pronounce some of the words. Harry gasped as he felt a surge of magic flow through him as she spoke.

"What did she just read?" He asked.

"It's the location of Grindelwald's vault. The Lieutenant was the secret keeper. He wrote the address in the journal," Hermione said in an excited whisper.

"But he's dead shouldn't the secret have been useless?" Ginny asked.

"A Fidelius Charm relies on one person holding the secret and telling others. If the Secret Keeper dies then the secret is transferred to everyone he or she had already told," Hermione explained. "It's why we couldn't use the Order of the Phoenix Headquarters after Dumbledore died, because Snape knew the secret," she said, her eyes narrowing slightly when Harry showed no surprise or curiosity at what she had said.

"So then the secret just dispersed to everyone else who he had already told," Ginny continued. "Which was probably only Grindelwald and his inner circle."

"But they're all dead, shouldn't the Fidelius have fallen when all the Secret Keepers died?" Harry asked.

"Unless they're not all dead," Hermione responded with a shrug.

"That wouldn't be too surprising, the end of World War II and the war with Grindelwald was chaotic. Most of his followers were dead and some of the survivors could have slipped through the cracks," Harry said thoughtfully.

"Well hopefully the survivor didn't empty the vault," Ginny said. "Any idea where this is?"

"No idea, there's a muggle library a few streets over. We can probably find maps and geography books there," Harry said. "Hermione is Berchtesgaden the town name or the street name?"

"The town name," she answered quickly, "I feel like I've heard of it before but I can't say exactly where it is."

Harry dropped some muggle money on the table to cover their food tab, as the other two got up. "We'll probably need to head to Germany for this, I can get us transport," Harry said as they moved towards the door.

"I'll head back to Gringotts and continue translating the journal," Hermione said cheerfully. "Once I tell my supervisor I've found a lead to the Vault he won't mind me postponing my other work."

As Hermione said this Harry shared a look with Ginny. The silent communication was missed by the bushy haired witch as she continued flipping through the journal in her hands. After several pointed looks Ginny finally sighed and nodded her head in agreement. By this time they were outside and Ginny began leading Hermione towards a side alley.

"You can apparate back to Gringotts over here Hermione," she said.

Harry frowned sadly at the two women before pulling a small pocket mirror from his jacket. "Padfoot," he said stepping back into the shadows and holding it close to his face. A muggle would think he was just using the speaker on a mobile.

"Harry?" Sirius' voice called out. "About time you called, was starting to think I'd have to come rescue you from the Tomb."

"Sorry I got sidetracked," Harry said. "I'm actually in London."

"London?" Sirius asked a hint of concern in his voice. "Are you ok Harry?"

"I'm fine Sirius," Harry answered smiling at the small image of his Godfather's concerned face. "The Tomb was empty, Grindelwald beat us there."

"Damn. I was really hoping you'd find something good," Sirius said.

"I got a lead on the Vault," Harry said simply.

Sirius' face went from a sad frown to shocked surprised so quickly Harry wondered if the mirror image had skipped forward. "You found the Vault!?" he practically shouted causing Harry to cover the mirror with his hand and smile apologetically at a surprised woman passing by on the street.

"There was a corpse in the Tomb from one of Grindelwald's lieutenants," Harry explained. "He had a journal on him which is why I'm in London, I needed a translator."

"So? Did you find a translator?" Sirius asked.

"Yea I did," Harry said glancing towards the alley where Ginny had led Hermione. As he watched there was a flash of light from the alley. "The owner of the journal was Grindelwald's secret keeper. I know where the Vault is."

"Hot Damn!" Sirius yelled excitedly. "Do you know how much treasure there will be in that vault!?"

"I have an idea Sirius," Harry said. "I'm going to need transport to Germany. Berlin should be fine we can apparate from there."

"I can have a plane ticket waiting for you at Heathrow in twenty minutes," Sirius said already pulling out an actual mobile phone.

"Uh. Sirius wait," Harry said glancing towards the alley just as Ginny emerged from it tucking the old journal into her pocket. "I'm going to need two tickets, and um, do we have any contacts in London I'll need muggle documentation as well."

Sirius' image in the mirror froze before his eyes narrowed in suspicion, "Who do you have with you Harry?"

"The Curse Breaker from Gringotts," Harry answered after a moment's pause. "We've been working together."

"Harry I know you inherited your nobility from your dad, but you should ditch this guy," Sirius said. "This is the Vault Harry! Think about what we could do with all that money!" he pleaded.

"I know Padfoot," Harry said, switching to his godfather's nickname as Ginny got close enough to overhear their conversation. "But this one is different, plus they've been a huge help. The translator was their contact."

"So now Gringott's knows about the Vault too! They'll be getting an international portkey to send their teams directly there!" Sirius ranted.

"I don't think they will Padfoot," Harry said as he glanced towards Ginny who was frowning at him. "I just need the address for the forger."

Sirius sighed and stared Harry down, once again losing the staring contest after a moment. "Fine, it's a new kid in Wiltshire. He's one of the best I've ever seen," he said before providing Harry the address.

"Thanks Padfoot. Have those tickets waiting for us in the morning. Forger's always take a few hours," Harry said.

"I will," Sirius answered. "And I will be waiting for you in Germany," he said, his voice making it clear there was no talking him out of this one.

"You really don't have to do that Padfoot," Harry said.

"I know I don't have to, but I am anyway," Sirius said with a smile. "I'll see you tomorrow Harry."

"Til tomorrow then," Harry said and tapped the mirror turning it off.

Stepping away from the side of the building he joined Ginny on the sidewalk where she was pretending not to listen to his conversation. No one passing by had noticed he was talking to a pocket mirror and not a mobile, typical of muggles. Ginny pulled the journal silently from her pocket and handed it to Harry.

"I really didn't like having to do that," she said quietly. "Hermione is one of my best friends."

"You didn't have to do it," Harry said simply.

"Yes I did," she answered. "It needed to be done, if she had gone back to Gringott's with the journal she wouldn't have been able to hide her excitement. She's a terrible liar."

"What did you do?" Harry asked curiously.

"Just a simple memory charm. She'll probably break through it on her own in a few days, but hopefully I'll be back before that and can just remove it myself."

"She seemed really intelligent, I'm sure she'll understand," Harry said sympathetically.

"I hope so, maybe if I make sure to include her name on the find and give her all the books we find she'll forgive me," Ginny said with a smile. "So where are we off to next?"

"Wiltshire, there's a forger there who can get you a muggle passport," Harry said. "I can side along apparate you to a place near the address."

"A passport? Why do I need a passport?" Ginny asked as she gently gripped his arm.

"Because we'll be taking a plane to Germany. An international portkey would take too long to get clearance for. My Godfather will have two tickets waiting for us tomorrow," Harry explained.

Ginny dropped her hand from Harry's arm and stepped back slightly, "A plane? A muggle plane!? Like the ones that fly!?"

"Yea, we'll take one from Heathrow to Berlin tomorrow. It should only be about two hours," Harry said, studying her features. He wasn't sure if she was excited or terrified.

"A muggle plane?" she said quietly to herself. "If I survive my dad is going to be so jealous!"

"You should survive just fine," Harry said with a laugh. "Statistically speaking flying by plane is safer than driving a car."

Ginny placed her hand back on Harry's outstretched arm as he prepared to apparate them. "Remind me to tell you about my dad's flying car sometime," she said as they disappeared with a quiet pop.

Once they had vanished the air behind where they had been standing shimmered slightly. The street was empty of muggles, but a security camera on the opposite side of the street caught the amazing act as the side of a building wrinkled and then slid down. A magical person would recognize it as someone removing an invisibility cloak, and seconds later a blonde haired man appeared against the wall of the building tucking a piece of fabric into the pocket of his robes.

"Potter," the man sneered before turning in his spot and disappearing with a crack. 

* * *

"You're sure this will work?" Ginny asked for the tenth time looking down nervously at the passport in her hand.

"Well, I've never actually used that guy before, but it should work," Harry answered with a sly smile. "Just act natural."

"The picture he used looks terrible," she said flipping open the passport to her picture. Harry thought it didn't look too terrible for a passport photo. The new guy Sirius had sent them to had been good, and surprisingly familiar to Ginny.

 _"This is the place," Harry said. They were outside a modest looking photography store squeezed between a liquor store and a video rental store._

 _"A photography store?" Ginny asked._

 _"Yea most of the forgers I've met just do forging as a side business, photography makes sense as a cover," Harry said as he held the door open for her, "helps explain the equipment."_

 _Crossing the threshold a bell somewhere near the back of the store sounded and there was the sound of movement from a back room. Ginny was looking at all of the camera equipment curiously, seemingly amazed by the small size of the cameras. Harry had made it to the counter by the time a door behind the register opened and deposited a small brown haired man._

 _"Hello! Welcome to Creevey Photography!" the man said cheerfully as he skipped up to the counter. "How can I help you today?"_

 _"Colin?" Ginny asked stepping up behind Harry._

 _"Ginny!" the man shouted his eyes lighting up. "It's so good to see you!" he said as he practically ran around the counter and pulled Ginny into a tight hug. Harry did his best to ignore the shock of jealousy he felt at seeing the young man hug her._

 _"I had no idea this was your photography shop," Ginny said as she returned the hug. "When did you buy this place?"_

 _"Oh, a few months ago, my parents helped me get a loan from a muggle bank," He explained. "But what are you doing here?"_

 _"She needs a muggle passport," Harry supplied._

 _Colin looked between the two of them a moment, his demeanor getting more serious. "We should go into the back room then," Colin said quietly, leading them behind the counter._

 _The back room wasn't large but had enough room for a desk and a shooting station with a plain blue backdrop. A corner of the room had been walled off with a solid red door separating it from the rest of the room and a large red light bulb sticking out of the wall above the door. On the desk there was a photograph of a younger Colin, an older man and woman who were probably his parents and a young boy, similar enough in appearance to most likely be his brother. The occupants of the magical photo waved cheerfully at Harry and Ginny._

 _Ginny's eyes rested on the photo, a sad smile on her face. "How is Dennis?" she asked softly and Harry saw the flash of pain that crossed Colin's face._

 _"He has good days and bad days," Colin whispered. "The healers are going to start him on a new treatment next week, but he'll probably spend most of his life in the Potter Home."_

 _"I hear they do good work there," Harry said quietly._

 _"They do. Some of the best healers I've ever met, and they don't have the old blood prejudices that St. Mungo's does, "Colin said. "They don't use the same muggle repelling charms that Mungo's does, so my mum and dad can visit whenever they want," he continued, a sad smile on his face. "Harry Potter is a great man, funds the whole place almost entirely on his own."_

 _"When I'm done with this job, would it be alright if I come visit him?" Ginny asked._

 _"He'd love that!" Colin said with a hint of his old excitement. "He met Harry Potter himself a few weeks back and wouldn't stop talking about it for days. I haven't seen him that happy since before the war."_

 _The room fell into an uncomfortable silence, Colin lost in memories of the war, Ginny silently supporting him with a hand on his shoulder, and Harry trying to not look too uncomfortable at the praise Colin had unknowingly given him and the guilt he always felt when learning of another victim from the war. After a moment Colin made a discreet swipe at his eyes, gave Ginny a thankful smile and a nod then moved towards the camera he had set up._

 _"So, you need a muggle passport Ginny?"  
_

* * *

"So, you went to school with Colin?" Harry asked in an attempt to distract Ginny.

"Yea we were in the same year and both Gryffindors," Ginny answered. "It's not surprising he opened a photography shop, he was always lugging a camera around with him. Most of the pictures I have from school are probably duplicates he gave me."

"So did you and he ever date?" Harry asked as innocently as he could.

"Me and Colin!?" Ginny asked before breaking down into a fit of giggles. "No. Definitely not. Actually he'd probably be more interested in you than me," she added thoughtfully.

"I know. He slipped me his number as I was paying him for your passport," Harry said. The payment had caused an argument between them, but Harry had argued that since it was his idea to take a plane he should pay. When Colin had given them a discount because she was an old friend Ginny had finally relented.

"He did!?" Ginny asked.

"Yea, I didn't want to make a scene but I don't swing that way," Harry said as he pulled the scrap of paper from his pocket.

"He's definitely gotten braver since school," Ginny said with a smile as she snatched the paper from Harry and handed her ticket to the stewardess.

Once the two were settled in their seats on the plane Harry pulled out a book he had acquired from a library the night before. It was a map and tourism guide for Germany. Flipping the book to its index he began browsing through until he reached 'B'.

"It was Berchtesgaden?" Harry asked, his finger moving down the 'B' words slowly.

"Yea," Ginny said looking out the window as the plane taxied out onto the runway. "But how will we get in the air?"

"Buckle your seat belt," Harry said. "Also sit back, takeoff is a lot like taking off on a broom."

Ginny took his advice and let out a yelp of surprise as the plane jolted forward and she was pushed back into her chair for a moment. The pressure was only present for a moment but by the time she looked back out the window the ground was far below them and only getting farther away.

"Harry we're flying!" she said pressing her face to the window. "These muggles are amazing," she whispered in awe, drawing a smile from Harry. 

* * *

**So ends chapter 2. Thanks everyone who left really kind reviews on the first chapter. The third and final chapter should be up next weekend. This was always intended to be a trilogy of short stories each 3-4 chapters long, I haven't decided if I'm going to publish an entire new story for the next part or just continue with this story and label the chapters Act 1, Act 2, Act 3 but I'll have made up my mind when I publish the next chapter.**

 **Also I apologize for the German stuff I used mostly google translate and google maps to find a location for the vault. So if the sentence in German makes no sense I'm sorry.**


	3. Act 1: Chap 3: The Vault

Chapter 3: The Vault

The room was brightly lit, the man standing next to the fireplace hated acting like some stereotypical villain. The walls were a welcoming shade of blue, the furniture a mix of gold and blue harkening back to his days in Ravenclaw. A strong healthy fire in the fireplace kept the room comfortably warm and several lamps hanging from the walls gave the room a welcoming feel. There was even a tea tray with biscuits set up on the coffee table in the center of the room. The fire flared green a moment before a young blonde haired man stepped through.

"Mr. Malfoy," the man greeted extending his hand.

"My lord," Draco Malfoy said mistaking the man's intentions and bending down to kiss the back of his hand.

The man pulled his hand back sharply a look of disbelief on his face. "You need not kiss my hand like some simpering buffoon," he said harshly. "I see your previous lord had you trained well."

Malfoy's face reddened slightly, "I'm sorry my lord, the Dark Lord expected a certain standard from his subjects."

"Maybe if he had been training you in combat instead of making you cower like a fool he would have won," the man said with a look of disgust on his face. "Please sit, there's tea and biscuits if you wish."

Draco looked slightly surprised by the courtesy and grabbed a biscuit as he sat down, "Thank you my lord I haven't had a chance to eat today."

"I'm sure you haven't. What happened at the Tomb?" the man questioned, gazing intently at Draco.

"The girl arrived, just like you said she would and broke through the wards around the Tomb," Draco answered. "She fell in a pit on her way in and broke her wrist."

"I assume you left her there?" the man said. "Gringotts will dispatch a team to find her tomorrow or the day after so she should be fine." Draco shifted uncomfortably in his seat drawing a sharp look from the man, "Unless you didn't leave her there?"

"No! I would have left her there, I swear my lord!" Draco said quickly. "B-But someone else had been following her and he helped her out of the pit."

"Who?" the man asked, knowing from the look on Draco's face he wouldn't like the answer.

"H-Harry Potter sir."

The man was silent for several long seconds, his face not betraying what he was thinking. This made Draco even more nervous as by the end of the war the mention of Harry's name to Voldemort was enough to ensure a long round of torture. The man's quiet calculations were unnerving when compared to the emotional rage of Voldemort. To Draco's surprise the man reached forward picking up a biscuit and chewing on it thoughtfully.

"My sources thought he was busy with the Tomb of Onhomet in Algeria," the man mused thoughtfully. "His connection within Gringotts must be higher than I thought for him to have learned of the Tomb already," he said taking another bite of the biscuit. "I assume he rescued the girl?"

"Yes my lord," Draco answered.

"Of course he did, a predictable hero," the man muttered. "Did they find anything in the central chamber?"

"It was empty my lord."

"Good, I thought it would be but I just needed to be sure," the man said before noticing the look on Draco's face. "Yes? I have told you that I do not torture those who bring me bad news," he said impatiently.

"Sorry my lord, but they did find one thing," Draco said hesitating before the man impatiently motioned for him to continue. "A journal belonging to one of Grindelwald's lieutenants."

The man's eyes widening and the corner of his lips turning down slightly were the only indication of his displeasure at this news, "And?"

"I-I followed them to London where they met the mudblood Granger to translate it from German," Draco said, wondering if the room had indeed just gotten colder or if it was simply his own nerves. "The journal had the location of Grindelwald's Vault in it, Potter and Weasley are leaving for Germany in the morning."

"Damn," the man muttered a deep frown now marring his regal features. "Did you get the location as well?"

"I heard the location sir, the invisibility cloak you gave me allowed me to get close enough," Draco said. "I don't know where it is, b-but I could find out!"

"You had better find out then. Grab some of your remaining friends and get to the Vault," the man said. "I don't care how but make sure neither of them leave the Vault alive. There are several books I want but the rest of the treasure is yours. I'm sure that will help replenish your depleted fortune."

"If half the rumors are true it will be more than enough my lord, thank you!" Draco said. "I swear Potter and Weasley won't leave that vault alive," he said already moving towards the fireplace.

"They had better not," the man said calmly as Draco disappeared into the flames.

* * *

Harry shifted nervously in his seat. Before they arrived in Germany he had to tell Ginny who he really was because the second she met Sirius she would know. He didn't want her finding out that way, but years of keeping his real identity hidden had left him extremely nervous. Ginny had been quiet most of the flight, seemingly enraptured by the in flight movie which coincidentally involved a female Tomb Raider.

"Ginny can I talk to you for a second?" Harry asked gently, getting her attention.

"Finally ready to talk about whatever has made you so nervous?" Ginny asked with a smile.

"What? How?" Harry asked, thrown off by how she had known he was nervous.

"Six older brothers, you get good at reading people," Ginny said. "Plus you haven't stopped fidgeting for the last hour and it's clearly not because you're afraid of flying."

"Right," Harry said, making a conscious effort to stop his leg bouncing. "You see the thing is, my Godfather is going to be waiting for us at the airport in Berlin. I didn't tell you the whole truth of who I am," he paused not sure how to continue.

"You're Harry Potter," Ginny said simply, the edge of her lips twitching as she held back her triumphant smile as Harry's mouth dropped open.

"H-How?" was all he managed once he got over his shock.

"It really wasn't all that hard to figure out," Ginny said. "Evans was your mum's maiden name, my parents were friends and I double checked when I went home last night," she said ticking off one finger. "You're only covering your scar with a concealment spell and you took off your glasses, not much of a disguise," she ticked off another finger with a smirk. "And this one was only really something my family would know but you called your godfather Padfoot. My twin brothers had the Marauders Map while at Hogwarts and actually passed it on to me when they graduated. While they were working for the Order of the Phoenix they met Sirius Black and he explained the whole Marauders thing to them," she finished ticking off another finger.

Harry stared at her for a second in surprise his mouth hanging open. "You're brilliant," he finally said, a hint of awe in his voice.

"I know," she said smugly, leaning back in her seat.

"You really have the Map?" Harry asked.

"Yep, it's at home with my old school things," Ginny said, "I was planning on giving it to my daughter one day."

"Sirius used to tell me stories about all the things he and his friends did with that Map," Harry said. "I spent so much time planning how I would sneak into Filch's office and get it back once I went to Hogwarts," he said with a sad smile on his face. "I even searched Filch's office one of the times I had to go to Hogwarts, but I guess by then you had it."

"If you want you can have it," Ginny said.

"No it's yours now. Besides it wouldn't do me much good, I don't plan on going to Hogwarts anytime soon," Harry said.

"Harry," Ginny began hesitantly, "why didn't you go to Hogwarts?"

Harry sighed and looked out the window over Ginny's shoulder. "Sirius found out that Dumbledore was planning on hiding a powerful magical artifact there called the Philosopher's Stone," he said. "It was a stone that could grant immortality and of course Voldemort would go after it. So Sirius caught wind of this and was furious that Dumbledore would put me and the school at risk like that. We left for America that night."

"I don't remember hearing anything about that," Ginny said.

"Dumbledore hid the stone elsewhere to try and convince Sirius to bring me back but it didn't work," Harry said with a smile. "Sirius can be extremely stubborn when he wants."

Ginny looked ready to ask another question but was interrupted by the flight attendant announcing that they would be landing soon.

* * *

"There's so many people," Ginny said as the two worked their way through the central terminal of the airport. "How are you going to find Sirius?"

"I'm sure Sirius will find us," Harry answered.

"HARRY!" A voice boomed nearby causing several people to turn towards the source. "HARRY OVER HERE!"

Harry sighed quietly and turned towards his godfather who was jumping up and down excitedly waving his hands in the air. "At least he looks like himself," he whispered to Ginny, "once he met me polyjuiced as an underwear model in a very skimpy outfit."

Sirius continued to wave his arms excitedly while generally making a fool of himself until Harry and Ginny were directly in front of him. "It's about time you got here, I've been waiting for almost ten minutes," Sirius complained while inspecting Harry carefully from head to toe. "Good to see you made it out of the Tomb in one piece."

"I'm fine Sirius," Harry answered giving the man a long suffering look.

"I'll be the judge of that," Sirius said still searching Harry for some hidden injury. "Who's the bird by the way?" he asked his eyes flicking cautiously to Ginny.

"Sirius Black this is Ginny Weasley. Ginny, my godfather Sirius," Harry said.

"Weasley?" Sirius asked his eyes flicking to her red hair before taking in her freckles. "You sure know how to pick them Harry, you know she has like twelve older brothers right?"

"Six and I'm tougher than all of them so he should be more worried about me," Ginny said staring Sirius down her fists set firmly on her hips.

"Blimey looks just like her mum," Sirius muttered. "I think I'm gonna like you Ms. Weasley. Finally someone to keep Harry in line."

"Oy!" Harry said indignantly. "It's not like I'm some criminal! And I don't need a minder."

"Of course you don't Harry," Sirius said teasingly before extending his arm to Ginny. "Could you be a dear and get the bags?" he asked as Ginny wound her arm through his.

"Yeah no problem," Harry answered while glaring at Sirius' back.

Sirius led them through the airport and out into the parking lot before stopping behind a gleaming new yellow Lamborghini Diablo. Harry eyed the car longingly before glancing warily at Sirius, "I'm afraid to ask how much this set us back."

"Not much at all it's a rental we have it for at least 3 days," Sirius answered tossing the keys to Harry. "Besides this is Germany one of the few countries where you can actually let this baby drive like she was meant to."

"Alright," Harry said running his hand along the edge of the car, "you did notice there's three of us and this is a two person car?"

"Right!" Sirius said as he began digging in his coat pocket. "Well originally I planned on the two of us ditching your Gringott's minder and getting to the Vault on our own," he said as he gave Ginny an apologetic smile while she glared at him. "However, after meeting the charming Ms. Weasley I've scrapped that plan and instead the two of you can take the car. I have this!" he shouted triumphantly as he pulled a small toy motorcycle from his pocket.

"A toy motorcycle?" Ginny asked doubtfully.

"A toy!?" Sirius shouted. "This my dear is no simple toy!" Placing the tiny motorcycle on the ground Sirius stepped back and looking around cautiously pulled his wand from his pocket and bent down to tap the bike lightly.

Ginny raised an eyebrow in mild curiosity as the motorcycle began to shift and expand until it dominated the pavement in front of her. Sirius pulled a used rag from his pocket and started polishing the chrome handlebars lovingly. Harry rolled his eyes at his godfather's antics while Ginny giggled.

"So I'll take this lovely combination of muggle engineering and magical ingenuity while you two have a leisurely drive in the car," Sirius said conjuring a helmet from thin air as he threw one leg over the bike. "Which way are we heading by the by?"

"South," Harry answered. "We actually should have flown into Munich but I didn't realize until we were already in the air. It will probably be a seven hour drive to get there," he finished as he pulled out the map and laid it on the hood of the car.

"Well in that case how about a bit of race?" Sirius asked, his eyes narrowing in a challenge.

"I don't kno-"

"You're on!" Ginny cut him off. "Last one there buys the first round."

"Done," Sirius said shaking her hand.

"Fine but no flying!" Harry warned as he slid into the driver's seat. The car roared to life as Ginny slid in beside him, looking around the car curiously. "Buckle up," he said pointing towards the seat belt next to her shoulder. Once Ginny had her buckle in place Harry pulled the car slowly out of the spot and maneuvered slowly through the parking lot.

"I thought this was supposed to be a race?" Ginny asked impatiently.

"It's a seven hour long race and driving fast in a parking lot is just asking to cause an accident. Don't worry once we're on the open highway we'll leave Sirius in the dust," Harry explained, slamming on the brakes as a man on a cellphone cut him off.

"Moron!" Ginny yelled at the man. "He should watch where he's going!" she continued as Harry hid a smirk.

* * *

Several hours later Harry's prediction proved true and they had indeed left Sirius far behind them once they had gotten to the highway. Ginny was surprised to find that the muggle automobile was extremely fast and luckily Harry was an accomplished driver as he weaved through traffic with little difficulty. For the most part the two had kept their topic of conversation light and friendly or about what they might encounter in the Vault, but Harry could see that Ginny had things she was desperate to ask.

"You can ask the questions you've been holding back," he finally said, "if I don't want to answer one I'll let you know." Harry kept his eyes on the road as they hit a patch of traffic but he could feel Ginny studying him from her seat next to him and prepared to answer the questions that people always asked.

"Where in America did you live?" she asked and Harry decided she must be easing into the bigger questions.

"We moved around a bit, but mostly in the northern states, Massachusetts, New York, Illinois, Oregon for a few months," he answered truthfully. "I think Oregon was my favorite."

"Moving around like that must have made it hard to make friends," Ginny stated, a hint of sympathy in her voice.

"It was," he answered slowly, "I didn't have many friends. There were a few people once I went to school, but I wasn't actually in school that long, only two years."

"You only went for two years?" Ginny asked in surprise.

"When we moved Sirius and our friend Remus home schooled me for two years, then finally let me go to regular school," Harry reminisced. "Of course I was only there for two years before a Death Eater found us and managed to kidnap me for a ritual to bring Voldemort back. After that I was stuck in homeschooling again."

"How did you escape V-Voldemort?" Ginny asked only stumbling slightly on the name.

"That time, Sirius, Remus, and some friends of Sirius' from the auror department managed to find me," Harry answered.

"So the articles in the paper about you dating an American super model and going on constant vacations to exotic clothes optional locations aren't true?" Ginny asked with a completely straight face.

Harry laughed loudly at the image, "No that's all complete rubbish. I do go to exotic locations for work but most of the time my clothing stays on."

"Most of the time?" Ginny asked with an impish grin.

"Well some of those desert tombs can get quite hot," he answered.

"I suddenly wish we were heading for a desert tomb," Ginny muttered and Harry glanced over at her with a smirk.

"Maybe next time Ms. Weasley."

"A girl can dream," she said with a smile as she made a show of looking Harry over. "Speaking of next time how did you get involved with the ICW and their branch of Curse Breaking?"

"Actually the six other guys and myself in the branch prefer Treasure Hunters over Curse Breakers," Harry said. "Makes us seem much more macho don't you think?"

Ginny thought it over silently for a moment before nodding, "I suppose it does. But why the ICW? Why not Gringotts?"

"I was being partially honest yesterday, I do it for the money and the adventure. The ICW lets me keep anything I find in a tomb on the agreement that any magical artifacts are returned to them. Depending on the artifact I'll sometimes get a nice finders fee as well," he answered.

"I thought the Potter family was moderately wealthy, you don't strike me as the greedy sort," Ginny pressed a slight frown on her face.

"My parents did leave me a sizable amount of money and Sirius isn't exactly poor either," Harry conceded, "but the hospital doesn't pay for itself. We have a few donors but without funding from the Ministry, Sirius and I would have run out money by now. So I took up Treasure Hunting, and luckily I'm very good at it. My first two tombs had enough gold in them to keep the hospital funded for years." Harry glanced at Ginny to find her studying him with a strange look on her face, "What?"

Careful to avoid his arms while he steered Ginny leaned over and kissed him lightly on the cheek, "You're an amazing person Harry Potter."

"Oh, uh, thank you," Harry answered, his cheeks flushing slightly and an odd tingling sensation lingering on the spot she had kissed him. After that the two slipped into a comfortable silence for a while before Harry realized that Ginny had fallen asleep.

* * *

The city of Berchtesgaden has been around for hundreds of years. Built into the slopes of the Bavarian Alps and preserved almost flawlessly the city harkens back to a simpler time while also embracing the shadows of its past. During World War II the city became a hub for the Nazi Party as Hitler maintained a house and retreat just outside the city. While the Soviet's claimed Berlin at the end of the war the Allies made due with Berchtesgaden and the Eagle's Nest, Hitler's mountaintop retreat.

After the war the town slowly recovered and over time developed into a tourist location. Hitler's former home was demolished and rebuilt as a hotel while the Eagle's Nest was turned into a restaurant and beer garden accessible by either tour bus or two hour hike up the mountain. The town itself catered to both historical tourists with a World War II museum and winter sports enthusiasts with nearby ski resorts. Harry pulled into a parking lot behind a large inn just off the main street of the town. He and Ginny had pulled their bags from the trunk of the car when Sirius roared into the parking lot.

"Damn," he said as he hopped off the bike, "I thought I had you when I used the boost near Munich."

"Maybe if the boost could last longer than a minute, but unfortunately our car had the ability to maintain it's speed," Harry gloated joyfully. "That means the first round is on you."

"Yeah I know," Sirius said waving Harry off, "you two go get the rooms I'm going to shrink my baby and then I'll meet you in the bar."

As Harry and Ginny entered the inn he slipped his wand out and flicked it quickly casting a spell on the both of them as they approached the desk. Ginny felt the magic hit her but by the time she glanced at Harry he already had his wand back in his pocket and hidden from view.

"Hello! How can I help you today?" the young woman behind the desk asked as the two approached.

"We'd like two rooms please, one with two beds and one single," Harry answered and the woman nodded before turning towards the computer partially hidden by the desk.

"She speaks english very well," Ginny whispered quietly while giving Harry an accusing look.

"Translator spell," he whispered back as the woman turned back towards them.

"Both rooms are upstairs to the left, room 202 and 203. Right across from one another," the woman said handing Harry the keys as he pulled out a wad of muggle money. "Is there anything else I can help you with this evening?"

"Is there any place we can get some maps of the local trails? We were planning on hiking tomorrow and wanted to plan our route," Harry said.

"There's a stand with local tourist information by the door to the pub, a map of local hiking trails is in the top row," the woman said pointing towards the far side of the room.

"Thank you very much," Harry said as he grabbed his bag and led Ginny towards the stairs. "You can have the single room while Sirius and I bunk together," he said handing her one of the keys as they reached the top of the stairs. "I'll meet you in the pub in ten minutes?" Harry said as he pushed open the door to his and Sirius' room.

"Sounds good to me," Ginny said as she disappeared into her own room.

Later that night the three were gathered around a table in the back of the pub with a map of local trails spread out before them. The pub itself was only moderately crowded with a group of locals cheering on a football match and a small group of tourists looking through various brochures. Their table was far enough away no one would really hear them, but Harry still made a point to put up some simple privacy charms. A platter of chips sat between Harry and Ginny while all three had a round of beer courtesy of Sirius.

"According to the map most hikers leave from here," Harry said pointing at the map, "and follow this trail up the mountain to the Eagle's Nest," he continued trailing his finger along a red line winding up the mountain. "From what I can tell the Vault is most likely located over here," he said pointing to a heavily forested part of the mountain with no trails going near it, "it's a ways off the main trail but shouldn't be too hard to reach."

"I'm sure you will have plenty of fun trekking all over the mountain looking for this place," Sirius said in amusement.

"You're not coming?" Ginny asked.

"No, I don't know much about curse breaking," Sirius said, "I'm mostly logistics and emergency backup. I'm much better suited for enjoying the beautiful local scenery," he added as he winked at the young woman from the desk who had entered the pub with some coworkers.

"You're a pig," Ginny said, not angrily but as if stating a fact.

"Yeah, but you get used to it," Harry said before Sirius could answer. Sirius glared at him before taking a swig of his beer and returning his attention to the young woman who was now glancing at Sirius every few minutes. "I think we can sleep in a little tomorrow, probably hit the mountain around ten."

"That will be nice, I was up before dawn yesterday and today," Ginny answered with a relieved smile.

"I'll leave you two to finish planning," Sirius said rising from his chair, "I'm going to go indulge in some local culture."

Ginny and Harry watched as he moved smoothly to the bar as if to order another drink before bumping into the young woman seemingly by accident. It was clear from the look on her face that she knew it wasn't an accident at all but quickly enough Sirius had her smiling and laughing at a joke.

"She can't be much older then us," Ginny said, a hint of disgust in her voice as Sirius leaned in pretending not to hear what the woman was saying over the noise of the small crowd.

"Age isn't something Sirius notices," Harry said before cringing at what he'd said. "I mean he's just as likely to flirt with that girl as he is her grandmother. It just depends on his mood."

Ginny looked at him curiously for a moment, "And you? Do you have a certain type or just anyone you meet in a pub?"

"I've never been great at flirting or dating, and one night stands definitely aren't for me," Harry replied truthfully. "But I suppose wounded red headed damsels trapped in tombs are rather rare to come by."

Ginny rolled her eyes at him as he reached for a chip. "You're right, you're not very good at the whole flirting thing," she said as she snatched the chip from between his fingers.

"Hey!" Harry replied indignantly as he tried to grab the chip back from her.

Neither noticed as Sirius glanced back at them from across the room and a triumphant smile appeared on his face.

* * *

"Harry! I found something!"

Pushing through the thick underbrush of the untraveled forest Harry uttered a quiet curse as his foot caught on root. Ginny seemed to have an easier time pushing her way through the underbrush and had managed to get ahead of him. Finally he pushed through a bush and found himself on the edge of a small clearing around a cave opening. To the left of the cave entrance the familiar symbol of the Deathly Hallows was carved into the rock face.

"This is it," Harry said quietly his eyes fixed on the symbol.

"Are you sure?" Ginny asked cautiously stepping towards the cave entrance her wand out and casting revealing charms.

"That's the symbol Grindelwald's forces used," he said pointing towards the symbol. "This is most likely his Vault."

"I'm not detecting any spells or traps," Ginny said as she made her way to the cave entrance.

"I didn't think we would, any protection charms placed out here might interfere with the Fidelius or at the least leave a magical signature for Curse Breakers to hone in on," Harry said as he ran one hand over the symbol of the Deathly Hallows, his other hand drifting towards his pocket where his invisibility cloak was hidden. Memories of the Resurrection Stone and Elder Wand popping into his head, the thrill of power when he possessed them returning almost like it had never left.

"Harry?" Ginny's voice pulled him from his memories and his gaze snapped up to meet her concerned eyes. "Are you ok?"

He shook his head, banishing the last vestiges of those memories before giving Ginny an apologetic smile, "Sorry this just brought back some memories from the fight against Voldemort."

Ginny nodded in understanding but didn't question him further realizing he didn't want to talk about it. Instead she turned back towards the cave entrance and cautiously began to edge her way into the cave, repeating her process from the tomb of casting a detection spell every few feet. Harry followed closely behind her casting a different more powerful detection charm every so often while carefully studying the cavern walls. They were about ten meters into the cave when one of Harry's spells lit up a section of wall a few feet in front of them. Slowly the two edged their way to the glowing section of wall and began to study the runes that had appeared.

"I don't recognize this sequence," Ginny said after several minutes, "it looks like a transfiguration spell, but there's also misdirection charms, an entire layer of defensive spells, and it looks like a timer charm to reset the whole thing."

While Ginny pointed to the various runes she recognized Harry studied the runes she hadn't identified. "It's a Daedalus Charm!" he finally said in surprise.

Ginny's brow furrowed in thought before she finally shook her head, "I've never heard of a Daedalus Charm, what does it do?"

"I've only ever seen it mentioned in books, the time and dedication to cast it must have taken months," Harry said, carefully highlighting several of the runes with his wand. "It's from an ancient Greek wizard and basically if we tripped this rune it would have turned the rest of the tunnel from here to the Vault into a labyrinth that would take us days or even weeks to navigate. The likelihood is that we would die in the maze without ever finding our way out."

"That's pleasant," Ginny muttered, "there must be a way to bypass it. How would Grindelwald and his followers have gotten through without triggering it?"

"I wonder…" Harry said thoughtfully as he began to work his way through the runes carefully once again. "Dark Lords really do have no ingenuity," he finally said after highlighting a specific set of runes with his wand.

"What is it?"

"It's a similar set of runes that Voldemort used to keep out anyone not bearing the Dark Mark, I learned how to bypass these runes when I was sixteen," Harry answered and began to work on the runes adding a few his own and erasing another. "I can change the bypass pattern from only people bearing Grindelwald's permission to anyone."

It took several minutes but eventually Harry sat back on his heels carefully studying his work, checking to make sure he hadn't missed anything that would trigger the trap. Satisfied with his work he stood up and taking a deep breath stepped past the rune. After several seconds he released the breath he had been holding, glad to see that his trick had worked, before turning and offering a hand to Ginny who was still crouched on the floor ready to pull him back should the trap activate.

"Good work," she said already casting more detection charms over the tunnel in front of them.

"Thanks," he answered, acutely aware of the fact that she hadn't let go of his hand as they began to move further into the tunnel.

* * *

The tunnel ended up being longer than either would have expected but after the Daedalus Charm the defenses were rather sparse allowing the two to take turns breaking those that were present. Both agreed that Grindelwald must have thought the Fidelius and Daedalus Charm to be impassable, but still kept their guard up as they approached what they hoped was the end of the tunnel.

Half a kilometer in the tunnel finally opened up into a pitch black cavern that the light from Harry and Ginny's wands could barely illuminate. At the edge of the circle of light cast by their wands they could just make out the shadowed shapes of various objects and even the reflective glint of metal.

"Is that a light switch?" Ginny asked drawing Harry's attention to wall near the tunnel where a large switch was bolted to the wall with several thick wires extending upwards into the darkness.

"I think it might be," Harry answered in confusion as he approached the switch casting several detection spells on it. When it revealed nothing dangerous about the switch he shrugged his shoulders and using both hands flipped the switch upwards.

Deep in the cavern there was sputtering cough as an old generator tried to start and then roared to life. Above them there was a hum and clicking noise as lights on the ceiling flickered to life illuminating the cavern which was much larger than either of them had realized. Stretching back almost half a kilometer and about forty meters wide the cavern was split into five sections by huge shelves stretching towards the back of the cavern. Banners on the cavern wall proudly showed the Deathly Hallows symbol and Nazi swastika. The shelves themselves were filled with items, books, weapons, large boxes, and hundreds of other items that neither Ginny or Harry could identify from their location.

"Wow," Ginny whispered quietly her eyes wide as she tried to take in the wealth of artifacts before her.

"Yeah. Wow," Harry agreed his eyes glued to one object prominently displayed in front of the center shelf. "Is that what I think it is?" he asked pointing towards a boulder about waist height with a jeweled sword hilt sticking out of the top.

"Excalibur?" Ginny breathed her feet already moving towards the stone. Harry followed her his eyes glued to probably the most legendary sword in history.

"I never actually thought it was real," Harry breathed as they stopped before the stone and glanced from one another to the sword. Carved into the rock next to the sword was a single line, "Whoso Pulleth Out This Sword of this Stone, is Rightwise King Born of All England," he read reverently his fingers tracing the words. "Ladies first," he said with a grin stepping back to allow Ginny a shot at the sword.

Harry looked on as Ginny looked nervously from the sword to him before taking a deep breath and stepping up to the stone placing both hands on the hilt and one foot against the stone and tugging as hard as she could. The sword remained completely motionless as Ginny pulled uselessly against it. After several seconds of trying she sagged slightly, huffing in disappointment as she stepped away from the stone allowing Harry to try.

Harry stepped up taking a similar position to Ginny's and carefully wrapped his hands around the hilt. A warm feeling moved from his hands up his arms to his chest reminding him of the welcome feeling when he gripped his wand and he glanced at Ginny wondering if she had felt this as well. Taking a deep breath he tightened his grip and pulled with all his might. The sword didn't budge. He tried once more with similar results before letting the handle go and looking at Ginny with a shrug.

"I guess neither of us is the Rightwise King or Queen Born of All England," he joked leaning against the rock.

"Well thank Merlin for that," an arrogant voice called from the cavern entrance.

At the entrance to the cavern five people had appeared, the center one a blonde man with oily hair and a sneer on his face was flanked by two hulking figures their faces hidden by black hoods. Bookending these three was a medium height hooded woman, black hair pouring out of the hood of her cloak and another average looking man, his face also hidden under a black hood. It took Harry a moment to place a name to the blond man's face but Ginny was quicker.

"Malfoy!" she hissed, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here for the treasure of course," Malfoy sneered as his companions began to spread out in a half circle around Harry and Ginny. "I suppose it will also mean having to kill both of you."

"I doubt it," Harry said his wand already in his hand, noticing that Ginny had hers out as well and pointed at Malfoy.

"Our Lord promised us all the treasure if we kill you and I could use a new summer home," Malfoy said before launching a curse at Harry.

Harry conjured a shield to block the first round of attacks, barely requiring any strength to keep it up. While he kept them protected with his shield Ginny fired two blasting hexes towards the group. The first hit the ground in front of one of the large men knocking him backwards off his feet, while the second shattered a hastily conjured shield from the woman and sent her flying backwards into the rock wall with a loud crack. A stunner from Ginny kept the large man down and the woman showed no sign of moving anytime soon.

With two of their number taken out in seconds the other three momentarily stopped their barrage allowing Ginny and Harry to move apart, Harry engaging the remain two cloaked men while Ginny began a furious duel with Malfoy. Harry had no time to worry about Ginny as the smaller man began throwing hexes and curses at him as rapidly as he could. Harry dodged most but was forced to conjure a shield against some preventing him from counter attacking. While the smaller man engaged him the larger one gave up using his wand and instead charged Harry with a roar.

Harry dodged the man's first punch and managed to grab his forearm using his own momentum to flip him onto his back. His distraction cost him as one of the smaller man's cutting curses slipped past his shield and sliced his back open. With a howl of pain Harry kicked the large man in the face hoping to knock him out and turned back to the smaller man. Five spells left Harry's wand quickly and silently the first three bouncing harmlessly off the man shield while the fourth broke through the shield staggering the man backwards and the fifth disarmed him and sent him spinning backwards into the wall.

Turning back to his final opponent Harry found him back on his feet, a broken nose the only evidence of Harry's work. Before Harry could utter a spell the large mans fist found Harry's stomach doubling him over as all the air rushed from his lungs and his wand fell from his hand rolling away. Given no time to counterattack Harry found two large hands wrapped around his throat as he was lifted off his feet and his air supply cut off. Struggling uselessly in the large mans grip the edge of Harry's vision began to turn black as his body ran out of air. In one final desperate act he kicked hard at where he hoped the man's crotch was and was rewards with a groan of pain as the two hands let him drop to the floor where he gasped desperately for air.

Rolling onto his back he found the man already struggling back to his feet one hand gingerly cupping himself and a look of pure rage on his face. Harry had no idea where his wand had gone in the struggle but he doubted he'd have time to find it before the man was on him again and he had no strength left to fight off the gorilla sized man. Fate was on his side though as a purple curse flew over his prone form and hit the man directly in the face. He had never seen someone take a shredding curse to the face and dearly hoped he never would again. Using the stone to help him claw his way back to his feet he saw Malfoy shoot an exploding hex at Ginny's feet sending her flying backwards where she landed hard against the cavern wall her wand rolling from her fingers.

Over his life Harry had seen many people cast the Killing Curse and all but one of them had something in common. Before casting the Killing Curse a person's face would contort in a look of pure hatred and rage as they summoned all of their negative feelings in order to successfully cast the curse itself. This momentary pause had saved his life on more than one occasion, but now he stood completely unarmed and too far away to do anything as Draco Malfoy gave Ginny this look of pure hatred and lifted his wand.

"Avada-" Malfoy screeched.

The world around Harry slowed down as his right hand felt around desperately for something, anything, to throw at Malfoy to try and stop or delay the spell he knew was coming. His eyes never leaving Malfoy, Harry's hand made contact with something metallic and he launched the object between Malfoy and Ginny praying that just maybe the object would take the killing blow meant for her. Time still moving slowly Harry had time to register the jeweled hilt his hand pulled into his field of vision followed by the gleaming silver blade that left his hand and flipped end over end cutting through the air towards the spot between Malfoy and Ginny.

"-Kedavra!" Malfoy finished and the green spell left his wand streaking towards Ginny as a whistling noise filled the air. The Killing Curse reflected off the silver blade of Excalibur directly back at Malfoy so quickly that when his own curse struck him in the face he died with a look of triumph still on his face.

Excalibur ended up buried to the hilt in the cavern wall as Malfoy's lifeless body hit the floor with a loud thud in the suddenly quiet room. Harry could only look from his hand, to the sword, to Malfoy's body completely dumbfounded as his brain tried to process everything that had happened. Ginny seemed to be in a similar state of shock her gaze locked on Malfoy's corpse in confusion as she tried to process how she wasn't dead.

Harry was the first to move, his mind catching up to the present and reminding him that three enemies were still in the room and not restrained. He found his wand a few feet from where he was standing and quickly conjured ropes to tie up the three hooded people with Malfoy who were still alive. Then he walked over to Ginny who seemed on the edge of a panic attack. Taking in her appearance, she was very pale making a small cut on her cheek stand out even more, a deeper gash ran up her arm and the bottom hem of her robes were burned and still smoldering in one spot.

"Are you ok Ginny?" Harry asked kneeling down beside her and placing a hand on her shoulder.

This seemed to snap Ginny out of her stupor as she looked up at Harry in surprise before leaping forward hugging him tightly. "You saved my life!" she said her arms around his neck tightening making him wince. "Are you alright?" she asked pulling back and examining him.

"I'm fine," he answered quickly earning him a glare. "I have a small cut on my back and my neck's a little sore from when the big guy was choking me but I'm fine. Are you alright?" he asked again, this time gingerly reaching for her wounded arm.

Ginny looked down at the wound wincing as she realized for the first time she had been cut. "It hurts, but I don't think it's that deep," she said as she retrieved her wand and cast a basic healing charm on the wound. "Harry you pulled Excalibur from the stone," Ginny said in awe as she walked towards where the sword was buried in the wall.

"I guess I did," Harry said putting a hand on the sword's hilt. "I was really only trying to find something to block the curse and save you," he added as he gave the sword a light tug and easily pulled it from the wall.

"I guess this makes you King of All England," Ginny said with an amused smile, "My Liege," she added.

"I think we can keep that part to ourselves, the current Queen is doing fine," Harry said. "We should probably contact Sirius, there's an ICW office in Munich that can send people to help us start cataloging all of this stuff and set up more security."

"Gringott's has a branch in Berlin as well and if we're splitting this evenly they'll want to help catalog everything," Ginny said.

"Of course," Harry said, "but nothing leaves this cavern without our express permission and everything goes through us."

"Agreed," Ginny said with a happy smile.

"Are you ready to be the most famous Curse Breaker of the century Ms. Weasley?" Harry asked looking back towards the room filled with treasure.

"With your name attached we'll be front page of the prophet for a month," she said teasingly.

"I don't usually like being in the paper but sharing it with you probably won't be too bad," Harry said seriously, squeezing her hand.

* * *

The pub normally quiet on a weekday night was filled with rowdy patrons dressed in strange clothing. All of them talking loudly and happily about an amazing find, one for the record books, one that would put the two Treasure Hunters in the history books.

The two people in question were seated at table in the back smiling politely as everyone in the bar continued to come over to shake their hands, offer congratulations, and buy them another round. Sirius had come by every few minutes to check on them, a girl on each arm, and his face red from dancing and drinking.

Ginny and Harry neither wanting the spotlight but knowing they couldn't avoid it forever sat together bearing it as well as they could. Quiet comments, shared smiles and knowing looks getting them through the night as a photographer approached them for the third time requesting a photo for the paper, never specifying which paper.

The muggle patrons would probably have to be obliviated several times before the end of the night but the team of German aurors who had been stationed in the town to keep order between the ICW and Gringotts had turned a blind eye to the blatant disregard of the secrecy act, simply moving to have private words with various patrons and pub staff when they began voicing unwanted questions.

"So Harry what's your plan now?" Ginny asked after Sirius had come by for the sixth time trying to convince the two to dance.

"And let Gringott's best and brightest new Curse Breaker steal my next find right out from under me?" Harry asked playfully. "Not a chance Weasley."

Ginny gave an exaggerated sigh, "Fine I guess I'll go and find my own tomb to explore."

"But," Harry started, "I was thinking of taking some time off and going to London. If the goblins initial tallies are right I've made more than enough gold to keep the hospital running for years and maybe finally launch my next idea."

"Oh and what's your next idea?" Ginny asked.

"I'm going to open a magical orphanage."

Ginny looked at him thoughtfully for a moment mulling the idea over in her head, "I think that's a wonderful idea Harry."

"Thank you," he said running a nervous hand through his hair, "I was wondering, since you told Colin you'd go to visit his brother, I was uh wondering if you'd like to come with me when I visit the hospital?"

"I'd love to Harry," she answered quickly, impulsively taking his hand under the table.

"Great!" Harry said a little too loudly, "Maybe afterwards we could get dinner together?"

"Sounds like a date," she said with a happy smile.

"Great," he said again happily. "Oh before I forget!" He exclaimed reaching over to pull a small brown parcel from his bag while still keeping his other hand entangled with Ginny's. "This is for Hermione, I figured it would be a good apology for erasing her memory. Just tell her when she's finished to donate it to someone who will appreciate it."

"What is it?" Ginny asked turning the small package around in her hands.

"Merlin's personal journal."

"How did you get this!?" Ginny gasped in shock.

"I found it while cataloging the Vault, I figured Hermione would love to be the first person to study it so I grabbed it for her as a reward for her help in finding the tomb. Do you not think she'll like it?" Harry asked suddenly unsure of himself.

"Are you kidding? Hermione will be over the moon about this!" Ginny said excitedly as she moved to stash the package in her bag. "That was very thoughtful of you Harry."

"Thanks, tell her that I would personally suggest donating it to Hogwarts library when she's done reading it," he said.

"I'll make sure to let her know."

* * *

FIND OF THE CENTURY!

The words were sprawled across the cover of the Daily Prophet over a picture of Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley standing side by side in front of shelves filled with treasure reaching back into the cavern behind them. The paper was a week old but every day there was a new headline about the treasures being found within Grindelwald's Vault. The paper itself lasted only a second as the flames into which it had been thrown caught hold of the edges and burned it to ashes just as the fire itself turned green and flared. A well built man in a large tan trench coat stepped from the flames into the nicely appointed living room, his eyes meeting those of the regal grey haired man already seated in the nearby dark blue wingback chair.

"You summoned me my lord?" the man asked bowing courteously.

"Dawlish, I trust you've heard of what's happening in Germany?" the grey haired man asked.

"Yes," he answered letting his tone ask the question he wanted to voice.

"Malfoy and one of his cronies are dead and the remaining three are being extradited to the British Ministry tomorrow for questioning," the man stated leaning forward in his chair. "I need you to ensure they know nothing of Malfoy's connection to me and if they do, silence them."

"It will be done my lord," Dawlish stated. "Is there anything else you require of me?"

"Not now, I first need to find out the true extent of the damage done in Germany before I can plan my next move. Hopefully the objects I require from the vault will be delivered to me by the goblins before they know what it is they have found," The grey haired man said as he steepled his fingers and leaned back in thought. "You may return to work," he said offhandedly waving Dawlish towards the fireplace.

"Enjoy your night Lord York," Dawlish said before vanishing in a swirl of green flames.

As the flames from the fire once again died down leaving the room in dancing shadows Lord York idly traced the tattoo on his arm. A tattoo that had been there for over sixty years, placed by Grindelwald himself when a younger Lord York knelt before him and swore fealty to the Dark Lord. The tattoo signifying Grindelwald's power and his deepest desire, but while his former master had been obsessed with the Deathly Hallows, York had seen the greater threat.

The threat he had sacrificed everything to protect the magical world from.

The threat Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley were dangerously close to uncovering.

 **And so ends Act 1 of Harry Potter Treasure Hunter.**

 **I'd like to thank everyone for their kind reviews and the multitude of story follows I received. I also apologize for the long wait between this chapter and the last but you can blame a perfect storm of work, the holidays, and Fallout 4. Also I realized when writing it that the first scene of this chapter really should be at the end of the last chapter, it's been bothering me since I wrote that scene last month.**

 **I hope the next chapter can be up by at least the end of the month if not sooner, but I'm having problems finding a "villain" for Act 2 while the now revealed Lord York continues to pull strings in the back ground.**

 **Please let me know what you think of everything and if you enjoy it (or hate it)(also I know the generator in the cavern would most likely not work after 60 years of no maintenance but uh... magic?)**


	4. Act 2: Chap 1: The Weasley's

For Alan Rickman an amazing actor and the man who brought Severus Snape to life.

Act II

Chapter 1: The Weasley's

 **GRAND OPENING OF THE POTTER AND WEASLEY ORPHANAGE**

 **By Parvarti Patil**

 **Six months after being part of the greatest magical find this century, Harry Potter and Ginevra Weasley were on hand today at the ribbon cutting ceremony of their joint venture, the Potter and Weasley Orphanage for Magical Children. Located on the eastern edge of Hogsmeade Village the newly constructed building was built using funds the two received for finding the location of Grindelwald's Vault.**

 **Before the ribbon cutting I was able to get an exclusive interview with both Mr. Potter and Ms. Weasley:**

 **PP: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me, I know you must both be extremely busy.**

 **GW: Today is actually some of the least work we've had to do, an event planner is the poor soul being run into the ground we just go where we're told. (Ms. Weasley and Mr. Potter shared a knowing smirk before laughing at what I assume is a private joke.)**

 **PP: Of course, but I'm sure you'll have to be somewhere soon, so let's get right to the questions. Whose idea was it for the orphanage?**

 **HP: The original idea was mine and one I've been thinking about since I opened the Potter Home. I told Ginny about the idea during our uh… expedition to find the Vault and she's been behind the idea ever since.**

 **PP: So it didn't take much convincing for you to put the majority of your reward money from finding the Vault into setting up the Orphanage?**

 **GW: None at all, I was prepared to help almost as soon as Harry told me about it. I've never been one for material possessions and the reward for finding the vault plus my cut from Gringotts for the items within the Vault was more than I could ever need. Giving back to help children who have lost everything was the easiest decision I've ever made.**

 **PP: I'm sure it was. It appears you already have about fifteen children ready to live here. How many children is the Orphanage prepared to support?**

 **HP: There's actually eighteen children who will be moving in today, with another five set to arrive in the next week. As of right now the house is stocked and staffed to support fifty children but we're prepared to expand if necessary.**

 **PP: The house is taking in all magical children regardless of origin-**

 **HP: Of course. Blood purity is for outdated hatemongers who haven't realized their time is passed.**

 **PP: I agree completely Mr. Potter, I was just wondering how you find magical children who are muggleborn?**

 **GW: Headmistress McGonagall from Hogwarts and Minister Diggory have allowed us access to both the Hogwarts Student Registry and the Record for Magical Births. Using these we were able to check on every magical child in the UK under the age of seventeen.**

 **PP: And you found this many children living in orphanages?**

 **HP: The war left many families broken, while some of these children were found in muggle orphanages there were several pureblood and half-blood children who were left to family members unprepared to take care of them. Family is important but not everyone is ready to care for a child whether financially or emotionally. We offered some of these guardians and children the option to let the child come live here and they decided to accept our offer. These guardians are of course allowed to visit the child, I know better than anyone the importance of maintaining a connection to your parents and family.**

 **PP: Of course. The Orphanage is not simply a home though, you will also be offering services for the children?**

 **GW: The Orphanage will pay for the school supplies for any Hogwarts age student living here, along with a small allowance for those old enough to visit Hogsmeade. We've also hired a teacher who will provide lessons in basic subjects like math, writing, and history to younger children between ages five and eleven. There will also be trips several times a month to magical locations like Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley, and the Ministry of Magic, along with trips to non magical locations.**

 **PP: It sounds like you've thought of everything, the Orphanage sounds like a wonderful place for these children. For future donors is there anywhere in particular they should send their donations?**

 **HP: Anyone wishing to donate to either the Orphanage or the Potter Home can simply go to Gringotts and deposit any donation in the Lily Foundation vault.**

 **PP: Wonderful, now for my final question. I have to ask, are the two of you together? Has Ms. Weasley roped herself the wizarding world's most eligible bachelor.**

 **HP: Ms. Patil you know I don't answer questions about my personal life. For now I will say that both Ginny and I are good friends and excited to be working together on both the Orphanage and any other future projects we may encounter.**

 **Despite Mr. Potter's attempt to avoid the question, more and more evidence has been seen in recent months to confirm the existence of a romantic relationship between Mr. Potter and Ms. Weasley.**

 **For further info on the...**

Lord York glanced up at the large large photo of Harry and Ginny, surrounded by children, cutting a ribbon hung in front of the door to the new orphanage. With a sigh he placed the paper onto a pile of old newspapers beside the fireplace he used for kindling. The paper landed on top of a faded issue from months before that also had a picture of Harry and Ginny at the Potter Home sitting with Dennis Creevey and another patient laughing at something one of them had said.

"A magical orphanage," Lord York said thoughtfully. "It really is a good idea, one the Ministry should have funded long ago."

"There is no such thing as a goblin orphan," the goblin sat across from him said. "If a child's parents die then they still have the clan and a clan would never abandon a child."

"It was of course the old blood supremacists that prevented an official orphanage," York said. "Why should they concern themselves or their money with the well being of muggleborn children?" York sneered. "Idiots."

The goblin smiled showing off his many sharp teeth before leaning forward to slide a piece of paper across the table to Lord York. "As you requested the final and complete inventory of the Vault that was transferred to Gringotts, unfortunately there is no mention of a journal belonging to Merlin or of Excalibur," the goblin said.

"I believe the sword currently resides with Mr. Potter," Lord York said. "Both of their reports are rather vague on how exactly Mr. Malfoy died and I know their insistence that the sword was gone when they arrived is a lie. It would be so like Potter to have been the person to pull the sword from the stone."

"And the book?"

"I don't know," Lord York said worriedly. "Neither of them should have known to look for it, but for whatever reason one of them must have found it and not recorded its existence."

"Could the ICW have it?" the goblin questioned.

"My contact insists it is not on the ICW's inventory," he answered. "I'll have him check again and also make inquiries about whether Harry kept any items as trophies. Search the girls office see if you can find any information about the journal."

"And if we don't find it?"

Lord York sighed in frustration, "If we don't find it I will place a guard on the Library and begin looking into other options."

"You should just eliminate them, they are a threat."

"I tried that once, another attempt on their lives would be too suspicious," Lord York said, a small headache forming as he remembered the mess Malfoy had made for him. "Unless we have concrete proof they have the journal and are searching for the Library we will not engage them."

"If you insist," the goblin said as he rose from his seat, "I'll take my leave and hope you know what you're doing."

Lord York scowled as the goblin disappeared into the green flames. The two couldn't possibly know what it is they had stumbled upon in the Vault. It had taken him so long to follow the clues and piece it all together. There was no way for them to know.

* * *

Ginny sighed contently as Harry's muscular arm wrapped around her waist, his fingers tapping nervously on her hip. "You'll be fine," she soothed placing her hand over his and interlacing their fingers to stop his tapping.

"You only had to meet Sirius and you got to do that before we were actually dating," Harry grumbled as they walked slowly down the path from the apparition point to the front door of the Burrow.

"You met my parents and Bill during the war and Percy has been helping us with the Ministry to organize the orphanage," she said counting on her fingers. "That's almost half already."

"I met your brother and parents in passing, I don't think I ever said more than five words to them," Harry said, "and like I said it's different when you're being introduced as the boyfriend."

"You faced down Voldemort without blinking an eye and yet you're afraid of my family," she said teasingly.

"Well there was only one of Voldemort," he muttered as they drew closer to the house.

Ginny paused and turned to face him. "You'll be fine," she repeated before pulling him closer to kiss him gently, before he could try to deepen the kiss she stepped away from him. "Don't worry I'll protect you from my big bad older brothers," she said her hand already on the doorknob.

As the door swung open a wave of noise, previously hidden by a sound cancelling charm, rolled over them. The entryway was empty except for a pile of shoes and boots and half a dozen coats hung on the wall. From the sound of it everyone was in the kitchen, although the amount of talking and lack of dishes and silverware clinking together told Ginny her mother had not served dinner yet. With a happy smile she grabbed Harry's hand and pulled him down the hall towards the source of all the noise. Turning the corner into the kitchen the noise level dropped considerably as everyone looked up at the new arrivals.

"Tante Ginny!" A strawberry blond girl shouted happily in a slightly french accent as she leapt from her chair and rushed toward Ginny.

"Tori!" Ginny shouted equally as happy scooping her niece up into her arms and placing a kiss on both her cheeks.

"Tante Ginny, maman and papa said I could not fly on my broom!" the girl said sadly earning a disapproving look from both her parents.

"Did they say why you couldn't fly on your broom?" Ginny asked glancing at the girl's parents.

"Dominique was playing with my dolly and would not let go! So I pushed her!" Tori cried in a tone that made it clear she thought her actions perfectly reasonable.

"That wasn't very nice," Ginny said. "Did you apologize to your sister?"

"No!" Tori cried clearly confused as to why she should apologize, "She took my dolly!"

"Pushing isn't very nice Tori," Ginny said trying to console the little girl. "Maybe you should say you're sorry to Dominique and your parents."

"But Tante Ginny!" Tori cried dramatically.

"No but's go say you're sorry and maybe later I'll take you out flying," Ginny said as she put the little girl down and gently pushed her towards her parents.

"Fine," Tori sighed and walked over to where her parents were sitting with her younger sister. "I am sorry Dominique," she said in a tone that clearly said she didn't mean it, but sometimes that was the best you could hope for with small children.

Ginny turned away from her brother's family and back to Harry who had been standing quietly watching the exchange, along with most of her family. They'd watched the exchange in amusement but her mother and father had risen to greet the newcomers. Her mother was looking between her and Harry with a large happy smile.

"Hi mum," Ginny said hugging her mother before moving to her father, "Daddy," she said kissing him on the cheek as he hugged her tightly before she stepped back and took Harry's hand pulling him forward. "This is my boyfriend Harry."

"It's a pleasure to see you again Mr. and Mrs. Weasley," Harry said stepping forward to shake her father's hand before Mrs. Weasley pulled him into a bone crushing hug.

"None of that, I insist you call us Molly and Arthur," she said stepping back and holding Harry at arms length to inspect him. "Dinner will be ready shortly, please take a seat anywhere," she added gesturing to the table where there were in fact only two open seats remaining.

"Of course Molly," Harry said before holding out a bottle of wine he'd had tucked against his arm. "I brought this for dinner, although now I realize there might not be enough for everyone."

"It's perfectly fine, we have a few bottles of our own we can put out and some of us can't be drinking anyway," she answered with a knowing smile to the woman sitting beside Percy.

Mrs. Weasley took the bottle of wine and disappeared into the kitchen while her father returned to his spot at the head of the table. Ginny took Harry's hand and led him toward the two empty chairs between Bill and George and across from Ron and Hermione. Ginny wasn't surprised to see her friend as she and Ron had had an on again, off again relationship since their seventh year at Hogwarts. Hermione was a common fixture at the Weasley family dinners but no one ever knew if she was coming until she actually arrived. She briefly wondered how long her brother and friend could go on like this, but knew she would be a hypocrite for involving herself with her siblings relationships.

"Harry you've met Bill, this is his wife Fleur and their daughters Victoire and Dominique," Ginny said as they passed the family pausing to let Harry greet each member with a handshake and a smile. "You've met Hermione as well, the prat next to her is my brother Ron who she's dating for some reason I haven't been able to fathom yet."

"Oi!" Ron shouted indignantly as he rose to shake Harry's hand. Ginny noticed the slight wince from Harry as Ron most likely tried to crush his hand.

"Percy and Audrey you know from their help with the Orphanage," Ginny said indicating the other two who were seated primly near the head of the table, most likely so Percy could discuss Ministry matters with their father. "And finally this is George, don't eat anything he gives you and assume all items near him are charmed to do you harm in some way."

"Absolutely spiffing to meet you Harry," George said giving Harry a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Don't believe a word my sister says, you'll never find someone as trustworthy as me. All the pranks were Fred's idea I just wanted to study and do well but he dragged me down this path of evil," he said quietly and his siblings laughed good naturedly. Ginny had of course told Harry of her brother who died in the war so he knew not to ask about Fred.

"Of course, I myself was steered down this path of pranking and inappropriate jokes by my godfather Sirius," Harry said with a smile. "Keeps insisting I need to start a new generation of Marauders."

"That would've made our time at Hogwarts much more enjoyable," George mused a far away look in his eyes.

Ginny purposefully maneuvered Harry into sitting next to Bill keeping herself between him and George in an attempt to save him from any prank attempts. Her brothers looked on approvingly as he pulled her chair out for her before sitting himself and immediately getting drawn into a conversation with Ron about Quidditch. Ginny was ready to join the conversation as Ron began spouting wild fantasies about the Cannons beating the Harpies but was distracted by Hermione staring at her pointedly.

"Hello Hermione. How are you today?" Ginny asked.

"I'm fine, I was looking for you at work on Friday," Hermione said, the hint of disapproval in her tone stating that she thought Ginny had skipped work.

"It was my day off, I was at the Orphanage with Harry helping two of the new children to get settled," she answered a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Oh," Hermione said, deflating a bit, "I-I didn't realize. Well perhaps after dinner we can talk about the special project I was working on," Hermione said meaningfully. "I think I've finally had a breakthrough."

Ginny was momentarily lost as she wasn't aware Hermione had been working on a secret project, but Hermione glanced at Harry and Ginny caught on. "Oh right, of course after dinner we can find a quiet place to talk while my brothers interrogate Harry," she said, noting that Harry was deeply involved in a Quidditch debate with Ron and had entirely missed the odd conversation between her and Hermione. Judging by the curious looks he was now giving both of them George had not, but he was discreet enough not to voice his curiosity.

"So Harry I have to admit you've been quite the thorn in my side the last couple of years," Bill said a little loudly drawing Harry from his conversation with Ron. Ginny winced as her brother avoided all attempts at subtlety and instead charged towards a confrontation with Harry.

"Really sorry about that, guess I've just been really lucky with my own research," Harry answered smoothly.

"I'm not entirely sure luck was the only thing on your side. The goblins have been conducting a man hunt the last few years to keep you away from our digs," Bill stated any hint of his good nature gone, the rest of the table now watching their conversation.

"Well they clearly didn't do a good job," Harry retorted his patience clearly starting to wear thin. "Maybe the goblins just can't admit they've been outsmarted and move on."

"You're playing a dangerous game Potter," Bill said angrily. "Whoever your source is, is going to get caught one day and the goblins will not be forgiving. You're just lucky Ginny was in training during your first few steals or they'd have interrogated her by now!"

"I would never purposefully place Ginny in harm's way and I would never ask her to spy on Gringotts for me," Harry said quietly his voice hard as he glared at her brother.

"William Weasley!" her mother said as she entered the room carrying a roasted turkey. "You will not speak to a guest in our house with that tone of voice! I thought I'd have taught you better than that."

Bill looked as if he was getting ready to continue the argument but finally backed down under the combined glare of his mother, his wife, and his sister. "I apologize for my tone Harry."

"It's no problem, you were just worried about your sister," Harry replied amicably the anger he had a moment ago almost completely gone. "If she let me I'd be just as worried."

Bill narrowed his eyes as he tried to judge the sincerity behind Harry's words, but finally he nodded, glanced briefly at Ginny and turned to begin serving himself dinner. Ginny breathed a sigh of relief, she'd been momentarily worried this would degrade into another argument like the one they'd had just after she returned from the Vault.

* * *

 _6 months earlier_

 _Ginny had expected to return to Gringotts and be showered with congratulations and other accolades by her co workers and maybe even a satisfied smile from one of the goblins. Instead her presence in the bank had brought with it an uncomfortable silence and awkward glances from her fellow Curse Breakers. The goblins themselves had regarded her with outright anger glaring at her as she crossed the main lobby of the bank to the employee only section._

 _She was almost at her office when a door next to her opened, "Ginny in here, now!" the serious voice of her brother echoed down the hall._

 _Stepping into his office she performed her normal ritual of studying the various artifacts scattered around the room but paused when she caught sight of the barely suppressed anger on her brothers face. Once again she was thrown off by his reaction as she had expected him of all people to be proud of her accomplishment._

 _"Sit," he ordered pointing at the chair opposite him. This of course earned him a raised eyebrow and challenging glare from his sister._

 _"Hello Ginny," she started in a sarcastic tone, "How are you? Congratulations on finding Grindelwald's Vault, I'm really proud of you."_

 _Bill gave her a frustrated look before flicking his wand causing the door behind her to slam shut. "You have no idea what you've done do you?" he asked._

 _"I discovered Grindelwald's Vault recovering hundreds of artifacts thought lost forever?" Ginny answered cautiously beginning to think she was missing something._

 _"You worked with Harry Potter!" Bill shouted. "He's not a goblin sanctioned Curse Breaker! You must have suspected he was the treasure thief the goblins have been hunting," Bill was pacing furiously now his arms swinging wildly about. "Do you know how I found out you'd found the Vault?"_

 _Ginny had remained silent as she thought it was a rhetorical question but as the silence stretched on she realized he was waiting for her to answer. "When the letter I sent arrived?" she cautiously offered._

 _"No!" Bill shouted slamming his fist onto his desk. "It was twenty minutes into the first interrogation the Goblins dragged me into! After they thoroughly questioned me on if I'd ever told you anything about the previous digs that Potter had beaten us too. Then they moved on to my own interactions with Potter during the war and if I'd been in contact with him since. I'm sure you can imagine my surprise when they then asked how you knew him and why you were working with him."_

 _"Did they hurt you?" Ginny asked seriously, not sure what length the Goblins would go to._

 _"No!" Bill retorted quickly. "The goblins wouldn't hurt an employee without proof of thievery. Although looking back I think there might have been a mild truth potion in the tea they offered me."_

 _"I-I'm sorry Bill, I didn't think they would react this way," Ginny said sincerely. "Harry knew about Merlin's Tomb and was following me when I was breaking into the Tomb," she paused unsure how much she should reveal. "He saved my life at least once in the Tomb, not to mention what happened in the Vault."_

 _"Why did you let him follow you into the Tomb?" Bill asked and Ginny got the sinking suspicion that this was no longer a conversation between brother and sister but between a Senior Curse Breaker and his subordinate._

 _"I didn't know he was there. He had an invisibility cloak," she answered. "He only revealed himself when I, uh, activated a trap and got myself stuck."_

 _"What trap?"_

 _"It was a floor illusion, the activation rune was just outside the range of my detection charm so I fell into a pit and broke my wrist," Ginny answered, unconsciously rolling the wrist that had been broken. "Harry could have left me there and proceeded into the Tomb alone but instead he revealed himself and helped me out on the condition we split the contents of the Tomb."_

 _"And in the Tomb?"_

 _"There was nothing, except an old corpse with a diary on it," Ginny said impatiently. "This was all in the report I filed earlier."_

 _"I know Gin, but I just need to be sure you didn't know Potter was there until you were already in the Tomb," Bill placated while glancing down at one of the papers on his desk, Ginny realized it was a copy of her report._

 _Ginny sighed but continued to answer all of Bill's questions for the next thirty minutes going over every minute detail of Ginny's discovery of the Vault. Bill seemed to focus on verifying if Harry and Ginny had seen Excalibur, but they had both agreed that the sword should remain hidden for now and that since Harry had pulled it from the Stone he would keep it. They'd fabricated a story about Harry conjuring a mirror in front of Ginny that reflected the Killing Curse back at Malfoy, even though it was a flimsy excuse._

 _"Just stick to your story and the goblins should let this go," Bill finally said, "at least you won't be seeing Potter anytime soon," he added glancing at Ginny as she looked away guiltily. "You won't be seeing him again, right?"_

 _"Well-" Ginny started looking down at her hands._

 _"Oh no," Bill muttered sinking back into his chair as he put a hand over his eyes. "Please tell me it's for a press conference of some kind."_

 _"He's going to join me when I visit my friend Dennis Creevey at the Potter Home," Ginny said defensively, "and then we're going out for dinner."_

 _Bill took a deep calming breath before looking his sister straight in the eye. "As your brother I know it's futile to try and control your love life, I'll leave that to Ron," he said a hint of a smile teasing at his lips. "But as your direct superior at work I'm telling you that if you choose to date Harry Potter and the goblins find out you will most likely be fired. Is a boy worth your career?"_

 _Ginny sat deeply in thought for several seconds a ghost of a smile occasionally flitting across her face. "No, but luckily I don't have to choose," she finally said._

 _"Oh?" Bill asked, wondering what she could be hinting at._

 _"Harry's boss and the Supreme Mugwump of the ICW showed up to investigate the Vault," she explained, "Harry's boss gave me a standing offer to join the ICW's Treasure Hunters when my contract with the goblins is up. If they choose to fire me I could just take him up on his offer sooner."_

 _"Were you planning on taking this offer when your contract is up?" Bill asked genuinely curious._

 _"I don't know, it's an option if I don't like working for the goblins," she answered. "I'm more inclined now that I see how they treat those who provided them with the biggest find of the century."_

 _Bill genuinely laughed, "I can imagine you haven't had a warm reception. Despite how the goblins and some of the other Curse Breakers are treating you the Head Curse Breaker, myself and the goblin chief are all very pleased with you."_

 _"I have yet to see evidence of this but I'm sure it will be reflected in my paycheck," Ginny said._

 _"You'll be able to go out and buy yourself a hundred of the Firebolt 3's if you want," Bill answered in amusement._

 _"I have something else planned for it," she said before standing, "Is there anything else? I'd like to drop some things off at my office and I want to stop by Hermione's office."_

 _"No you're excused, just don't take their attitudes too personally Gin."_

 _"I won't," she called, already out the door._

* * *

Ginny smirked at the memory, the goblins had yet to fire her, in part because she and Harry were doing their best to keep their relationship away from the public eye and because someone at Gringotts was pleased enough with her work to shield her from any backlash. She still only had a few ideas who it was protecting her but Bill insisted that at least one or more people had tried to get her fired only to have the idea shot down. Unfortunately without being fired the contract she had signed with Gringotts kept her employed with them for another four years. She could pay a fee to break the contract but her own pride was keeping her from giving the goblins any money and she'd decided to just bear the scrutiny and finish out the contract. Although each day the idea of leaving Gringotts to travel the world with Harry was more and more appealing.

Turning to her boyfriend Ginny was only mildly surprised to instead find a confused looking seal sitting in his chair. "George," she growled turning on her brother.

George ignored her instead studying Harry with a faint smile. "Odd it should have turned him into badger," he said thoughtfully. "Ron did you put it in his potatoes?"

Ron was trying poorly to hold in his laughter but shook his head, "No I missed and it landed in his wine."

"Mixing with wine gets a seal instead of a badger," George repeated a devious grin on his face. "I never realized that the food or drink could affect the transformation."

"George!" Ginny said beginning to lose her patience as Seal-Harry sat calmly by her side. "Change him back, now!"

"Don't worry Gin-Gin it's on a timer he should be turning back any second," George said. "Although the timer may be thrown off by the altered transformation as well," he added thoughtfully.

Ginny was red in the face at this point and her wand appeared in her hand, "George Fabian Weasley! I swear to Merlin if you don't change him back this instant I-"

They never found out what Ginny would do because mid rant Seal-Harry planted his lips firmly on her cheek and blew a loud raspberry. For a second there was complete silence as everyone in the room froze in shock, Ginny herself had been mid rant but now her mouth hung open in shock, her wand still pointed menacingly at George. The silence was broken as Ron started laughing which then spurred the entire family to break down into hysterical laughter. The only one not laughing was Ginny who turned towards Harry with a look of shock on her face.

Seal-Harry stuck his tongue out at her before leaning forward to lick her cheek. Ginny finally snorted and then broke down into hysterical giggles as Seal-Harry let out a series of loud barks that Ginny took to be laughter. This was confirmed as Seal-Harry slowly transformed back into normal Harry who didn't stop laughing throughout the transformation.

"You're an idiot," Ginny said playfully, just loud enough for Harry to hear above the laughter of her family.

"It was a good prank, I'd hate to see dinner ruined by you castrating your brother," Harry joked.

"You never let me have any fun," Ginny pouted before the two dissolved into laughter once again. "Thank you for handling that so well," she added once they'd calmed down again.

"Oh we're going to get him back of course," Harry said seriously. "But first I'm going to buy most of his stock to use on Sirius," he added with a devious smile.

* * *

Once dinner had ended the majority of the family moved to the living room where Ginny was able to leave Harry with her father once she mentioned that he had grown up in a mixed muggle/magical home. While Harry tried to explain exactly how a microwave warmed food, something Ginny actually found interesting if she was truthful, she grabbed Hermione away from her brother and pulled her out on to the porch.

"So what is it you found?" Ginny asked once they were alone.

"Oh Ginny, Merlin's journal has been amazing!" Hermione said, not answering the question. "I only finished translating it the other night, work has been really busy with all the things from the Vault coming in," she explained. "Also I had to learn Welsh," she added as an afterthought.

"You learned Welsh in six months?" Ginny asked, only mildly surprised.

"Well it was more like four months, but I already had a basic grasp of Celtic and the two are very similar," Hermione answered. "But that's not important Ginny! It's what I found in the book that is important!"

"So what is it you found?" Ginny repeated, hoping Hermione would get to the point.

"Well the journal itself only details Merlin's life from about age twenty to age fifty but he most certainly led an interesting life!" Hermione began and Ginny could only sigh as she realized that Hermione may go on for a while. "He didn't talk a lot about spells in the journal, from the things he wrote I believe he may have created a Grimoire that contains his knowledge of magic. Did you know he attended Hogwarts!? He was a Slytherin of all things, I never even realized he was younger than the Founders, most muggle legends have him living several hundred years before the founding of Hogwarts."

"Hermione!" Ginny snapped her patience beginning to wear thin. "You said you found something."

"Right! Sorry," she said sheepishly. "Well near the end of the journal Merlin mentions a Great Betrayal and the Night of a Thousand Stars. The final entries in the journal are about him taking a journey from England to Egypt to find the Library of Alexandria," here she paused to pull out an aged piece of parchment from her pocket. "He even had a map to the library stored at the back of the journal. This is a map to the lost Library of Alexandria!"

Ginny looked at the map which showed a rather detailed map of northern Egypt, a spot on the coast clearly marked and a small paragraph written in Welsh next to the marked area. Most Curse Breakers had a general knowledge of Egypt's geography as Gringotts used the many tombs there to test trainees, so Ginny recognized the marked area as the modern city of Alexandria, unsurprising given the Library's name.

"I thought the Library was destroyed?" Ginny asked only having a vague knowledge of the Library itself.

"So did I," Hermione exclaimed excitedly. "According to Merlin only the muggle part of the Library was destroyed, the magical part was hidden from muggles to protect it from destruction. That writing on the map is supposedly how someone can gain entrance to the Library."

"Alright," Ginny said studying the map for a moment. "So what did the Library have to do with this Great Betrayal and Night of Stars?"

"Night of a Thousand Stars," Hermione corrected. "Merlin believed that the Library would have a solution to these two events."

"What were they?" Ginny asked, almost certain she had never heard of them before.

Hermione paused awkwardly looking down at her hands, "I, um, I don't actually know."

Ginny's eyebrows rose up nearly to her hairline and her mouth dropped open in shock as she studied her nervous looking friend. "Y-You don't know?" she finally asked, in the all the years she had known Hermione she had never not known the answer.

"I'm allowed to not know things sometimes," Hermione snapped, "And it's not like I haven't tried to find the answer. I checked all the history books at Gringotts and Flourish and Blotts but none of them mention these events. I was thinking of asking Headmistress McGonagall for permission to check the Hogwarts library."

"So you really have no idea?" Ginny asked, still caught off guard by this idea.

Hermione made a sound that Ginny could really only call a growl and began pacing the small porch. "I have an idea, but no actual confirmation," she started. "Every history book calls Morgan le Fay his greatest enemy, but in his journal he often refers to her as a close friend and even hints at a romantic relationship between them at one point. Perhaps this Great Betrayal was in fact Morgan turning against him and he's going to the Library to seek out a way to defeat her."

"Does he mention finding the Library?" Ginny asked.

"No, the last entry in the journal is the night before he leaves England," Hermione said pulling a small manuscript from her bag. "This is the fully translated journal, I think he started another journal on the journey or when he reached the Library. Hopefully when you go there you can find the next journal."

"When I do what?" Ginny asked in surprise.

"You are going to go find the Library aren't you?" Hermione asked in confusion. "The magical knowledge held within would be unfathomable."

"I suppose I could ask the Head Curse Breaker for special permission to go look for the Library," Ginny answered thoughtfully. "It might take some work to sell, the Goblins aren't usually interested in magical history or knowledge so much as the treasure and gold hidden in tombs."

"But Ginny if the legends are true there could be books, scrolls, and manuscripts dating back to the very invention of the written word itself!" Hermione practically shouted. "If you don't go I'll just have to go myself I suppose!"

"Hermione calm down," Ginny said placing her hands on her friend's shoulders. "I'll try to get an officially sanctioned expedition from Gringotts, but if they don't want to fund one then I'll take some time off and go there myself."

Hermione studied her carefully for a second and Ginny knew she was analyzing each word she'd said. "By yourself? You won't bring Harry?"

"Maybe, if Gringotts doesn't sponsor the expedition," Ginny said, "but I'm not even sure if Harry would be interested in a dig like this."

"Ginny," Hermione said letting her question hang in the air between them.

Ginny avoided Hermione's gaze hoping if she just remained silent her friend would let it drop, but when she looked back she found her still looking at her expectantly. "Fine!" she finally said throwing her hands up in the air and beginning to pace. "I wouldn't bring Harry because I don't want him to get the credit again!"

"Again?" Hermione asked in confusion. "Everyone knows that you and he both found the Vault. In fact he was quite insistent in most interviews if I remember correctly."

"No Hermione, everyone knows that Harry Potter found Grindelwald's Vault and I was along for the ride," Ginny said sitting down on the bench. "I've heard the other Curse Breakers whispering behind my back, all of them think that I was lucky and followed Harry to the Vault," she cringed slightly remembering the stories she had heard, "and those were the nice ones. Most stories involve me seducing Harry and tricking him into taking me to the Vault with him."

"They're just jealous Ginny," Hermione started to say.

"They're right!" Ginny practically shouted.

"What!?"

"They're right," Ginny repeated quietly. "The biggest contribution I made to finding the Vault was knowing you. Harry saved me three times, twice in Merlin's Tomb and once from Malfoy," she said. "He probably saved me from the Daedalus Charm as well, it would have taken me days to figure it out on my own."

"Ginny, I'm sure you-"

"No Hermione, I didn't do anything to help find the Vault," Ginny interrupted. "I can't even blame the other Curse Breakers for thinking those things. If you look at the evidence it's really the only logical conclusion."

"Then they clearly have no idea what type of person you are," Hermione said firmly. "I've been your friend for over a decade Ginny and there's no way you would ever sleep with someone just to advance your career. Anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot!"

"That still doesn't stop them from being right," Ginny said dejectedly.

"So go out there and prove them wrong," Hermione said firmly. "You are one of the strongest people I know, so go out there get another assignment and prove them wrong. I know you don't need Harry and you know you don't need Harry. So go and show them that you're just as capable of being a Curse Breaker as they are!"

"You know how cliched that sounds?" Ginny asked, a hint of amusement in her voice as the corners of her lips twitched.

"Shut up, I'm trying to make you feel better," Hermione answered playfully.

Ginny stood up and hugged Hermione tightly, "Thanks Hermione, I needed to let that out."

"Anytime Ginny," Hermione said returning the hug tightly. "Do you think maybe you should tell Harry about this?"

Ginny stepped back from the hug and sighed. "I don't know, what's he really going to do about it? I already feel bad that a small part of me blames him for it even though none of it was really his fault."

"Well maybe you should tell him anyway. If you keep it bottled up for too long it might come out when you don't want it too and cause more problems," Hermione said, a knowing look on her face.

Ginny chuckled quietly, "Well I guess if the queen of relationship arguments gives me some advice I should follow it."

Hermione blanched at the title and suddenly looked uncomfortable, "I actually read that one in a relationship counseling book, I thought it might help with mine and Ron's relationship."

"Hermione, I love you and I love Ron, whatever happens between you, you'll still be one of my best friends," Ginny said pulling Hermione into a tight hug again.

"Thank you Ginny," Hermione said as she stepped back from the hug and looked down at her watch. "We've been out here for quite a while, I'm surprised no one came looking for us."

"My dad probably distracted Harry by asking him to explain the internet or something," Ginny joked as the two re-entered the house only to run into Bill and his family.

"Ginny, Hermione there you are! We were just on our way to say goodbye," Bill said as he pulled his sister into a hug.

"You're leaving already?" she asked in surprise, returning the hug.

"Dom is already asleep and even though she's denying it Tori isn't far behind," Bill answered indicating his youngest daughter already asleep in her mother's arms and his other daughter whose eyes were half closed as she swayed slightly in her spot.

" 'Mnot tired," Tori slurred before yawning, "Tante Gin's gonna fly wif me."

"Maybe next time kiddo," Ginny said pulling her niece into a tight hug. "For now it's time for you to go home."

"Don' wanna," the girl said even as she laid her head down on Ginny's shoulder and shut her eyes.

Ginny chuckled quietly, picking up her niece and carefully handing her off to Bill. "Before we go, I wanted to tell you Gin, the Head Curse Breaker wants to see you tomorrow morning at nine. I think he finally has a new assignment for you," Bill whispered quietly as he rubbed his sleeping daughter's back.

"Alright, I wanted to speak to him anyway," Ginny answered giving both Fleur and Dom a kiss on the cheek as they moved towards the fireplace in the kitchen to Floo home. After the family had vanished into the green flames of the Floo, Ginny and Hermione continued onto the living room where the rest of the family was waiting.

Her mother and father were seated in their arm chairs quietly sipping tea. Percy stood next to their father discussing something that happened at the Ministry while his wife Audrey stood beside her mother letting the future grandmother place a gentle hand on her rounded belly. George was valiantly fighting a losing battle against Ron as his chess pieces were wiped out one by one. Hermione gave Ginny's arm a final squeeze before moving over to watch the brothers. Harry was standing a little apart from the family looking at the various pictures on the mantle.

"This one's my favorite," Ginny said quietly as she walked up beside Harry wrapping one of her arms through his and using the other to point out a family photo squished between Bill and Fleur's wedding portrait and Percy and Audrey's. "Dad had gotten tickets to the Quidditch World Cup the summer before my third year, top box and everything. Bill and Charlie even came home for it," she explained her fingers idly tracing the laughing outline of Fred as he and George tried to push one another out of the frame. "It was the last time we were all together."

Harry didn't say anything but simply squeezed her hand as they stood together silently watching her family smile and wave happily from the picture. After a moment Ginny shook herself to try and loosen the hold grief had on her and replaced the photo on the mantle.

"I was just looking at this interesting clock," Harry said in an effort to distract her. "As far as I can tell it doesn't tell time."

"No, each hand is supposed to show where all of us are," Ginny explained pointing to a hand with her own face on it, currently pointing at work. "Dad got it for mum for their tenth anniversary, before I was even born. The spells that make it work wore off a couple months ago, so now mum just keeps it for nostalgia really," she said before dropping her voice into a whisper, "We're all actually pooling our money and buying them a new one for their anniversary this year with the grandchildren on it and everything."

"I'm sure they'll love it," Harry whispered, glancing at the elder Weasley's as they watched their children proudly.

"I'm ready to go Harry," Ginny finally said after several minutes of quietly watching her brothers play chess. "Bill told me I have to see the Head Curse Breaker first thing in the morning."

"It's about time he gave you your next assignment, you're going to be amazing," Harry said immediately and without prompting, a proud smile on his face.

Ginny stared at him in surprise, not sure how he could say the exact right thing at the moment she needed him to. Saying nothing she simply wrapped one arm around his neck and pulled him in for a deep kiss, blocking out the rest of the world entirely as she lost herself in his embrace.

"Oi!" George and Ron finally shouted after realizing what their little sister was doing. Ginny only just stopped herself from making a rude gesture at them in front of their mother, instead she just motioned to Hermione who happily slapped the back of their heads.

"Thanks Hermione," Ginny said stepping away from Harry as she led him towards her parents. "We're going to get going, I have to be up early for work."

"To separate apartments I hope," said Ron a little louder than necessary.

"It's none of your business but yes Ronald, Harry's going to take me home and then return to his own apartment," Ginny said, adding a silent 'eventually' in her own mind. "Goodnight mum, goodnight dad."

"Goodnight dear, you two make sure to come by again soon," her mother said hugging them both tightly. "It so nice to see my little girl in love," she whispered quietly in Ginny's ear giving her a wink as she stepped back.

"He's a good man Ginny," her father said as they hugged. "I'm happy that you're happy."

"Thanks dad," Ginny whispered before taking Harry's hand and leading him out the door waving goodbye to everyone else. "Take me home Harry," she said stepping into his embrace as they reached the edge of the wards. Harry smiled down at her and together they disappeared almost silently.

* * *

The next morning Ginny walked down the long marble hallway that led from the main lobby of Gringotts to the executive offices, including the Bank Manager and the Head Curse Breaker. She had only met the Head Curse Breaker a handful of times, he was an older regal gentleman but had a legend among Curse Breakers for never failing to break into a tomb or come back with treasure. Nearly every Curse Breaker in the world idolized the man and praise from him was considered more valuable than any other reward a Curse Breaker could earn. Once her debriefing about the discovery of the Vault had finished he'd given her a quick nod and a quiet, "Good job," before leaving the room she had been questioned in. According to Bill it was the most praise he'd given anyone in a decade.

In front of her two Curse Breakers walked out of a briefing room, one of them clutching a copy of the Daily Prophet. They caught sight of her as she moved to pass them and one of them immediately smirked and used the rolled up newspaper to poke his companion gaining his attention.

"Prophet finally caught Weasley and Potter on a date," he said loud enough that Ginny could clearly hear him. He was talking about the picture a reporter had finally gotten of them at dinner on Saturday, they'd been going to muggle restaurants to avoid the wizarding press but their luck had finally run out. "Bet she's trying to shag a wedding ring out of him, get her hands on his fortune."

"Excuse me!" Ginny shouted, rounding on the two men her wand already out. "What did you just say?"

The second man gulped audibly and took two hurried steps away from his companion, trying desperately to indicate he wasn't involved. The first man, who she now recognized as Blaise Zabini a Slytherin a year ahead of her at Hogwarts just glared at her his own wand in his hand.

"You heard me," he said. "I said you're a desperate gold digger, trying to shag your way up the social ladder."

"How dare you!" she shouted a dark yellow spell shooting from her wand.

Zabini conjured a shield, a cocky smile on his face which turned to horror as Ginny's spell blasted through his shield and hit him right in the face. For a moment nothing happened and Zabini started to smile before he sneezed and a bat shaped boogey flew from his nose and began to claw at his face. The first boogey was followed quickly by a second and then a third until he had a swarm of them swooping and diving at his face. Screaming he took off down the hall, almost running straight into a pair of goblin soldiers who laughed at him. Ginny turned her wand on the second man who held his hands up in surrender and then sprinted after Zabini.

"Idiots," Ginny growled before turning and stomping towards the Head Curse Breakers office.

Taking a deep calming breath she knocked on the large wooden door adorned with just a simple nameplate. From within the office an aristocratic voice called, "Enter," and the door opened on its own allowing her into the office.

"Ms. Weasley," the man behind the desk greeted, rising to shake her hand before indicating one of the chairs opposite him. "Always nice to find someone who can arrive to a meeting on time."

"Thank you sir," Ginny answered glancing nervously around the room. It was adorned with trophies and trinkets from a hundred expeditions, the largest a life sized portrait of Rowena Ravenclaw hanging on the wall behind the Head Curse Breaker.

"I asked you here today because we finally have new information leading to a new dig site and want you to lead the team assigned to it," he said pushing a folder across the desk towards her.

"Lead a team?" she asked, it was almost unheard of for someone as new as her to lead a team.

"Yes, the manager and I agree that you've proven your Curse Breaking abilities by cracking the Vault. Now we want to test your leadership abilities," he answered as Ginny flipped open the folder. "The site itself shouldn't be too challenging, it's a new set of chambers discovered in the Valley of the Kings. We know you have the skill to break into it easily Ms. Weasley, this is a test of your ability to lead a team and earn the respect of those under your command."

"Yes sir," Ginny answered flipping through the pages and skimming through each one.

"Do you have any questions?" he asked as he pulled a report in front of him and began to scan its contents.

"Not about the dig sir," Ginny answered quickly.

He looked up at her a single eyebrow raised in question, "Then what do you have a question about?"

"I was wondering if I might have a week or two after this dig to dedicate to a personal project," she said.

"You've had almost six months of light work Ms. Weasley, some Curse Breakers would be jealous of your current workload," he said, clearly trying to determine what she would be doing.

"A friend of mine has discovered a lead to the Library of Alexandria sir, I was hoping I could take my team to look for it once the dig was done. She provided a map and instructions on how to access the Library. We both believe it could provide a wealth of knowledge both historical and magical," she said quickly, so busy trying to convince the man, that she didn't notice his eyes widen slightly and his face pale.

"The Library of Alexandria," he said slowly, "I thought it was destroyed."

"So did I, but my friend is convinced the magical part of the Library still exists, hidden from the muggles," Ginny explained trying to sound as sincere as possible.

"And your friend?" he asked, a hint of concern in his voice.

"Hermione Granger sir, she works in the research department."

"And where did she come by this information?" he asked.

Now Ginny looked slightly ashamed and glanced away from the Head Curse Breaker. "Well she found the information in Merlin's Journal, Harry and I found it in the Vault and gave it to her as thanks for helping us find the Vault. She'll be donating it to Hogwarts Library once she's finished translating it," Ginny admitted bracing herself against an angry retort.

"Ms. Granger had the journal," the Head Curse Breaker finally said. "We were wondering if Merlin had left behind any personal effects like a journal," he explained quickly at Ginny's questioning look. "So long as your findings are brought back to Gringotts for study before being given to various libraries I see no reason why you can't take your team to look for the Library," he finally said.

"Really!?" Ginny said, surprised she had gotten permission.

"It could be quite a find to put under your belt, along with the Vault it could make you the youngest Senior Curse Breaker in history," he said with a proud smile. "But you'll only have two weeks, if you haven't found it by then I'll expect you and your team back in England," he added sternly.

"Of course! Thank you so much sir!" Ginny said standing and shaking his hand.

"There's a portkey taking you to Egypt tomorrow morning at ten from the Gringotts lobby," he said. "Don't be late and good luck Ms. Weasley."

"I won't and thank you again!" Ginny said heading towards the door. "Enjoy the rest of your day Lord York!" she called as the door closed behind her.

 **This was originally drafted as a short filler chapter, and then it got a life of its own and became the longest chapter yet and one I'm rather fond of. It's my first real attempt at writing scenes featuring Harry but not from his point of view or following him.**

 **Please let me know what you think of the story, I'm hoping to get the next chapter up before the end of the month it's a bit of a big chapter though so I want to be careful with it.**


	5. Act 2: Chap 2: Shadowed Threats

**Act 2**

 **Chapter 2: Shadowed Threats**

Grimmauld Place had been in Sirius' possession since the death of his mother over fifteen years ago. In that time he had largely ignored the house until the last few years when he and Harry had begun using it as a base of operations when they were in England. The kitchen, Sirius' bedroom, and a spare bedroom for Harry were the only rooms one hundred percent clean and free of dangerous creatures and objects. A few other rooms like the library, sitting room, and bathrooms had been given a rudimentary cleaning and cleared of most dangerous objects allowing the two to live in the house mostly unbothered.

Since discovering the Vault, Harry had cleaned out one of the other spare bedrooms and turned it into a planning room as he began an investigation into the mysterious 'Lord' that Malfoy had mentioned shortly before his death. He had learned first hand the dangers of letting Dark Lord's run around unopposed, the sooner he exposed this one the better.

However, that was proving to be a rather difficult task.

An entire wall of the room had been covered in various clues Harry and Sirius had discovered in their search. Pictures of Malfoy and his four accomplices were stuck near the bottom of the wall with large red X over each of them. Above them was a copy of the brief interrogation the ICW performed on the three survivors before turning them over to the British Ministry. Two of them had claimed to know nothing about the person who hired them, while the third, Theodore Nott, had claimed that it was a powerful wizard both financially and politically who had hired Malfoy to kill the people trying to enter the Vault.

Above the interrogation transcript was an article from the Daily Prophet about the murders of the three survivors shortly after they were turned over to British custody. Outside of England the murders were considered a huge embarrassment to the government that was still trying to recover from the War with Voldemort. To have three prisoners who had just tried to assassinate a national hero die in custody before they could be questioned had made the British Ministry the laughing stock of the ICW. At home Minister Diggory had done his best to keep the story underwraps and the small article in the Prophet was proof that the media had not quite regained its pre-war freedom.

Next to the article from the Daily Prophet was a copy of the Auror's official report along with a list of suspects and pictures of each suspect. The report and the list of suspects had required Harry and Sirius to call in some huge favors from people within the Ministry. Kingsley Shacklebolt had provided them the list of Aurors and Ministry personnel on duty who had access to the prisoners and could commit the murder. Harry had to bribe the Minister of Magic himself with a photo-op and comment supporting the rebuilt Ministry in order to secure the official report. Minister Diggory had seemed relieved to hear that Harry was personally looking into the murders though.

There was a large open space above the article and the report before a piece of paper with a large red question mark was spelled to the wall just below the ceiling. Under the question mark Harry had simply scrawled the word 'Lord'. The rest of the room was almost empty except for a bubbling cauldron of polyjuice potion and a table littered with newspapers from the last month that Harry had poured over looking for some clue to this new Dark Lord's identity or actions. In the center of the room Harry stood staring at the wall without seeing it. He didn't need to look at the measly amount of evidence they had gathered so far as he'd already committed it all to memory.

He stepped forward and ran his fingers over the only two names left on the list of suspects that hadn't been crossed out. John Dawlish and Willem Savage were the only two people who could have been in a position to murder the three prisoners but for some reason the Auror department had only lightly interrogated the two before declaring them innocent and putting them back to work. The entire thing reeked of a coverup but Shacklebolt was insistent they had provided solid alibi's.

Harry was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn't hear Sirius enter the room carrying a plate of sandwiches. "You've been in here for three hours staring at that wall," Sirius said causing Harry to jump at the unexpected noise. "Have a sandwich and let your mind take a break."

"I'm not hungry," Harry said almost automatically as he moved back to the table to pour over the Daily Prophet articles again.

"Harry," Sirius said, pushing the plate towards him.

"I'm really not that hungry Sirius. Mrs. Weasley made a feast last night, I'm still stuffed," Harry said, patting his stomach.

"Speaking of, how did meeting the family go?" Sirius questioned grabbing one of the sandwiches for himself.

"Her brothers didn't try to kill me, although I think Bill was close at one point," Harry answered. "Her parents were very welcoming, I think Mrs. Weasley might have bruised a rib with her hug."

"Molly was always a very affectionate person," Sirius said with a smile. "She and Arthur were seventh years when your parents and I started Hogwarts. She loved to mother us firsties."

"She's definitely a woman who's proud to be a mother," Harry mumbled as he read through the alibi's for Dawlish and Savage once again. "I think we're going to have to question Dawlish and Savage ourselves."

Sirius gave him a curious look as he bit into his sandwich. "I don't think they're going to just agree to let you question them Harry," he said after swallowing.

"We're going to have to kidnap them," Harry agreed.

"Kidnapping two aurors and holding them against their will are some serious crimes Harry," Sirius said. "You're sure there really is some hidden dark lord orchestrating things from the shadows?"

"Malfoy and his flunkies couldn't have just found the Vault without help," Harry answered. "Someone killed them to make sure their presence remained hidden."

"Well if we're going to do this, let's make sure we do it right," Sirius said with a sigh. "If Ginny gets back from Egypt and you're in Azkaban she'll kill me."

Harry smiled at the comment, his dour complexion brightening slightly at the mention of his girlfriend. "Not before she comes to Azkaban and kills me first," he said.

"True enough," Sirius said as he nodded, "So which one are we going after first?"

"Dawlish has the weaker alibi, and a penchant for drinking after work," Harry said as he pointed to the picture of the man. "He'll be the easier one to grab and if he's innocent we'll just make him think he blacked out."

"Sounds good, maybe we should prepare an interrogation room?" Sirius said.

"You do that, I'm going to track down some truth serum," Harry said as he headed out of the room. "I doubt he'll just tell us everything we need to know."

* * *

"Have you found anything yet?" Ginny asked as she stood behind a lanky rail thin man with neatly combed brown hair and a few days growth on his face. Peering over his shoulder she squinted her eyes trying to pierce the darkness just outside the dome of light created by their wands.

"Nothing," he answered as he continued to wave his wand about.

Ginny growled in frustration as she stepped past him and further into the room beginning to cast her own spells. "This doesn't make any sense, besides a couple defensive spells on the entrance we haven't found any trace of magical defenses in this tomb."

"Maybe Gringotts information about this tomb was wrong," a second man said as he entered the room carrying a box of equipment. This man was shorter than the first, slightly rotund and had darkly tanned skin from several years working in the Egyptian sun.

"Yeah boss, not every dig can be Grindelwald's Vault," the first man said with a smile.

"I was at least hoping for something mildly challenging Drake," Ginny answered, an amused smile playing across her lips. "We've been here three days and have almost nothing to show for it."

"Ahmed seemed really happy about that mosaic in the last room," the second man said pointing back over his shoulder towards a dark haired Egyptian man scribbling notes as he studied the wall length mosaic they'd found in the previous room.

"Williamson is right," Drake said as he cast some detection spells towards the far wall. "I heard Ahmed mumbling about the historical implications from the story on the mosaic."

"I'm sure the Cairo branch will be very excited to have the correct life story of some long dead Egyptian Wizard," Ginny said as she banished a scorpion that had crawled out of a crack in the wall next to her. "I'm also sure they would be much happier with gold and precious jewels… and maybe the body of the supposed wizard at rest here."

"I'm pretty sure this room is clear boss," Drake said as he began moving past Ginny towards the stone doorway at the far end of the chamber. Ginny followed closely behind him glancing at the hieroglyphics on wall and wondering what they said.

"What the-" Drake started to say as he stepped on a trigger stone that sunk beneath his foot with a loud thunk sound.

"Get down!" screamed Ginny as she grabbed the back of Drake's shirt and pulled him backwards and to the ground just as three large iron spears pistoned out of the wall on either side of the chamber.

"Holy shit!" Drake said as the spears slowly receded back into the wall, the light from their wands glinting off the rusted metal. "Boss you saved my life!"

"It was nothing," Ginny said looking worriedly at the spears as they disappeared into the wall. "Mark off that tile, Williamson go warn Ahmed to be on the look out for muggle traps, detection charms won't show them," she said glancing over her shoulder to the short man who seemed frozen in his spot a look of complete shock on his face. "Williamson! Now!" she shouted finally breaking the man from his stupor as he turned and carefully walked back into the previous room.

"Maybe this tomb isn't as boring as you thought, eh boss?" Drake asked with a casual smile as he finished circling the trapped tile with a glowing line of magic that would stay for several weeks.

"Maybe not," Ginny answered as she began lightly working her way towards the opposite doorway while tapping each tile hesitantly with her foot.

* * *

"Anotha rou' fer ma frien's!" John Dawlish slurred out as he slammed an empty pint glass on the counter.

"That's the third round you've bought Dawlish, sure you can afford it?" Aberforth Dumbledore asked as he started to pour another round of drinks for the drunk man.

"I jus got a load of money!" Dawlish said loudly as he dropped a decently sized coin purse on the counter. "Dirty dee's aint done dir' cheap!" he said with a loud laugh.

"This is your last round tonight John, after this you should go home and sober up," Aberforth said as he handed the glasses to one of Dawlish's less intoxicated friends. "Come back tomorrow if you want to buy more rounds."

"Ya know I will Aber," Dawlish said as he staggered back to the group of people he'd just bought another round of drinks for. As he fell into his seat he pulled a nearby woman onto his lap before slobbering on her face. The woman looked mildly disgusted but didn't complain as she was being paid rather well by the man whose hand was working it's way under her skirt.

"Sweetie why don't we go somewhere private?" she asked grabbing his wrist. He might be paying her but she'd rather not do her work in front of the entire bar.

"Soun's like a goo idea to me," he slurred. "Ma place is around the corner."

"I can't wait," she said as she half led, half carried him toward the door. At this rate he'd pass out before she even had to do anything and he'd just wake up in the morning a poorer and unfulfilled man.

The two had just rounded the corner at the end of the street when two red curses silently shot out of an empty alley knocking both Dawlish and the woman unconscious and sending them sprawling to the ground. A second later two black cloaked figures appeared from the darkened alley looking down at the two unconscious people before them.

"I was expecting at least some resistance from one of the top Auror's at the ministry," Sirius said sadly as he nudged the man with his toe.

"You weren't in the Hogs Head, he's so drunk he can barely stand," Harry said. "What should we do with his companion?"

"A light memory charm should be fine, then just leave her in the alley with a notice-me-not charm on her. She'll wake up in ten-fifteen minutes on her own," Sirius answered before casting the memory charm on the woman and levitating her towards the alley.

"Alright, I'll see you at home," Harry said as he reached down and grabbed the back of Dawlish's robes before disappearing with a pop.

"Sorry about all this luv," Sirius whispered to the unconscious woman. "I might swing by this weekend and make it up to you. Hope you're a regular at Aberforth's."

* * *

A jet of freezing cold water was what brought Dawlish back to consciousness. Coughing and spluttering as he tried to blink the water from his eyes he glanced around the mostly empty room. Across from him was an indistinct black haired man holding out his wand which was still dripping some water from the end of it. Seated next to him was another completely ordinary looking man, brown hair, brown eyes, pale skin and no distinguishing features.

"Morning John, I'd ask if you want some coffee but your current seating arrangement would probably hinder your ability to drink," the seated man said nodding towards where Dawlish's hands were chained securely to the arms of the chair he was seated in.

"You really screwed up grabbing me," Dawlish threatened. "I don't know what you want but you can guarantee that I'll be killing you once I get out of here."

"Kill us just like you killed these three?" the man asked sliding the pictures of Pansy Parkinson, Theodore Nott, and Vincent Crabbe into the light.

Dawlish looked at the pictures his face giving away nothing. He stared silently for several quiet moments before leaning back in his chair staring silently at a spot just over the man in the chairs shoulder.

The younger man pulled the pictures back with a sigh, "I was hoping you'd cooperate."

"Then you're a fool," Dawlish spat.

"Orion," the younger man finally said and a spell shot from the standing mans wand. Dawlish felt all his muscles lock in place as the spell took effect. The standing man approached him withdrawing a small potion bottle and tilting Dawlish's head back slightly. He felt two drops of the potion pass by his slightly parted lips and then his mind hazed over.

"Now lets try again," the younger man said, "Did you kill these three?" he asked holding up the photo's once again.

"Yes," Dawlish said his voice monotone and his eyes unfocused.

"Why?"

"My lord commanded me to."

"Who is your lord?"

Dawlish's face scrunched up in pain as he fought against the truth serum, "I-I can't tell you."

"Why not?" Harry said leaning forward.

"He'll kill me."

"Tell me!" Harry shouted rising to his feet.

"L-Lord, L-Lord," Dawlish stuttered out the potion forcing him to answer. "L-Lord Y- AHHH!" he screamed before he could complete the name and began thrashing violently in the chair his eyes rolled back in his head. As he thrashed blood began to foam out of his mouth and horrible choking sounds escaped his quickly flooding throat.

"Sirius! What's happening!?" Harry yelled as they ran to the dying man's side.

"I'm not sure, the potion shouldn't cause him to react like this," Sirius said as he began casting diagnostic spells on the man. "He's dying, his organs are ripping themselves apart."

It took two minutes for the thrashing to stop and Dawlish to slump bonelessly in his chair blood still dripping from his mouth. Sirius and Harry had stood by unable to help the man as he died. When the thrashing finally stopped Sirius cast a final diagnostic spell on the body confirming he was dead before kneeling down beside him and closing the wide open horrified eyes.

"Sirius did we cause this?" Harry asked quietly his eyes never leaving the body.

"I-I don't know."

"Best guess then?" Harry snapped.

"I think he swore an unbreakable oath to not reveal his Master's name. So when we tried to force it out of him his magic literally tore him apart," Sirius answered.

"He swore an Unbreakable Oath!?" Harry shouted. "What kind of idiot would do that?"

"This kind apparently," Sirius quipped. "Listen Harry, why don't you head up to bed? I'll uh, I'll clean this up."

"Sirius-" Harry started before Sirius cut him off.

"No Harry, grabbing him and questioning him was one thing," Sirius said. "But this could be considered murder and I'd rather have you as far away as possible."

"Sirius I'm an adult and I was here," Harry said. "It was my fault for pushing the question."

"No it wasn't Harry, it was his own fault for swearing an Unbreakable Oath over a question he'd be asked if he was ever caught," Sirius placed both hands on Harry's shoulders staring him straight in the eyes, "This isn't your fault Harry."

"Saying that won't change how I feel about this Sirius," Harry said, glancing over Sirius' shoulder at the dead man.

"He killed three people Harry, he wasn't an innocent man. This is just like during the last war," Sirius said.

"He didn't die in battle Sirius, he died because I asked a question!"

Sirius sighed realizing he couldn't get through to Harry right now, "You know my opinion on this Harry, but I'm going to insist that you get out of here and let me handle this part."

"What are you going to do?" Harry asked after several long quiet moments.

"Transfigure his body into a stick or something and go find a secluded wooded area somewhere," Sirius answered. "I doubt anyone will ever find him and well it's not like we had anything connecting us to him."

Harry stared at the corpse for several long silent moments but Sirius couldn't be sure if he was actually seeing the body. "Thank you Sirius," he finally whispered quietly before heading out of the room.

"No problem kiddo," Sirius said quietly to the empty room before turning towards the body.

* * *

"It's not a bad haul boss," Drake said as he carefully finished putting a pile of gold into a bag with Gringotts seal on it.

"It's not terrible," Ginny agreed as she weighed a gold statue they'd recovered. "But we haven't found the burial chamber yet, hopefully there's more treasure in there."

"These scrolls have so much information in them," Ahmed the groups translator and local historian said as he carefully opened one of the rolled up papyrus scrolls they had recovered. "I believe the wizard in this tomb may be a descendant of Tutankhamun himself, perhaps only two or three generations removed."

Ginny only had a basic knowledge of the muggle pharaohs from her history lessons during training but she remembered enough to know Tutankhamun was one of the more famous ones. "So a good chance of finding more treasure in the burial chamber?" she asked while notating the weight of the statue.

"Most likely," Ahmed said distractedly as he began translating the ancient scroll.

"Think you'll find the chamber tomorrow?" Williamson asked as he put down a box filled with some of the treasure they had found that day.

"Most likely," Ginny answered. "The magical protections have definitely increased in the last day so I think we're getting close. We might even break through to the chamber before you get back from your supply run tomorrow."

"Hope not, I want to be here when you finally crack this thing," he said. "Besides who will do all the heavy lifting if I'm not here?" he asked puffing up his chest and flexing his arms.

Ginny flicked her wand and began easily levitating the box Williamson had just carried in. "I'm sure we'll manage," she said smugly as the box settled in front of her on the table.

"Right, magic," Williamson said as he deflated slightly.

* * *

"Master Harry a letter arrived for you," Kreacher the house elf said as Harry entered the kitchen.

"Thank you Kreacher, could you prepare me a cup of tea and some scones?" Harry asked as he picked up the official looking envelope with his name on it.

"My pleasure Master Harry," Kreacher said as he shuffled towards the stove.

"And please just Harry," he added with a smile and he unfolded the letter.

 _Mr. Potter,_

 _We have received several requests from Gringotts bank as to whether there were any personal journals or spellbooks from Merlin included in our inventory from the Vault of Grindelwald. We have informed them that we do not have any such artifacts in our possession. However, records indicate you kept several items including a few books as your finders right._

 _If you have books belonging to Merlin in your possession we ask that you promptly respond to this letter so that we can inform Gringotts._

 _Best Regards,_

 _Oliver Dupont_

Head of Magical Artifact Recovery and Storage

Harry put down the letter just as Kreacher set a cup of tea and a plate of biscuits before him. Harry knew Oliver pretty well and reading between the lines realized that Gringotts had made more than a few requests and several of them had probably been under the table and involved bribes. The ICW in this case would have been open with the bank as to whether they had the journal or not, but if he was being written directly then someone at the bank wanted the book desperately enough that the ICW saw a chance to trade for something of greater value to them.

"Kreacher I need to head to Diagon Alley, just let Sirius know whenever he wakes up," Harry asked as he grabbed his cloak, a sudden sense of unease about Merlin's Journal overcoming him.

* * *

Harry enjoyed visiting Diagon Alley in the morning. The small normally crowded street was almost deserted except for a few other early morning shoppers waiting patiently for the shopkeepers to open their stores. He was leaning against a building just across from the bank so he had a perfect view of all the approaching wizards and witches, most just coming to withdraw money before heading off to do their shopping. However, some were bank employees enjoying an early morning walk to work instead of simply using the Floo to get to the bank lobby.

At 8:55 am sharp Harry watched Hermione walk out the door of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes and begin making her way down the alley greeting several shop keepers as she passed. A small part of him secretly enjoyed knowing he was about to throw off her well kept schedule. As she moved past him at 8:57 he stepped forward slightly into her path meeting her eye with a friendly smile.

"Hey Hermione," he greeted.

"Oh! Hello Harry, how are you?" she said glancing past his shoulder to the open doors of Gringotts. He could almost see her mind calculating how much faster she would have to walk to get to the building by 9am.

"I'm doing pretty well," he answered. "I know you're probably in a hurry to get to work, I just wanted to know if you had finished with that journal Ginny and I gave you."

Hermione shifted uncomfortably, her eyes refusing to meet his, "Oh, well, uh, no not yet. I've been rather, er- busy recently and haven't had a chance to finish translating it yet."

"Really?" Harry asked, wondering why the simple question had made Hermione uncomfortable and why she was obviously lying to him. "It's just I've received word from the ICW that some people are looking for the journal to study it and I was hoping you'd be willing to let them borrow it for a while."

"Oh! Well I left it at home and I am in a bit of a rush. Is there anyway I can get it to you later this week?" Hermione asked as she tried to step past Harry.

"Hermione is there something wrong?" he asked placing a hand gently on her arm to stop her while forcing her to look him in the eye.

"What!? No! N-Nothing at all!" she practically shrieked, her voice cracking at one point.

"You're a terrible liar Hermione," Harry responded with a smirk.

This time Hermione deflated and let out a defeated sigh, "I know."

"So what are you trying to hide? Is the journal damaged?"

Hermione gasped in a mix of horror and outrage. "How dare you think I would let harm come to such an important book! I would never let any book be damaged if I could prevent it!" she practically shouted at him.

Harry took a step back raising both his hands in defeat, glancing around the alley that was slowly beginning to fill with people. "Ok, well if it isn't damaged then why are you lying about it?"

"Well, I-I did finish translating the journal," Hermione said.

"Alright, and?" Harry prodded not sure where this was going.

"Well, you see you can't tell Ginny I told you even though she'll probably figure it out on her own and be really mad at me no matter what but you can't tell her-" Hermione began to ramble.

"Hermione! Why didn't Ginny want me to know you had translated the journal? What did you find?" Harry asked as a cold chill began to run down his spine, something wasn't right here and he was missing a huge clue.

"The journal ended with Merlin going to the magical Library of Alexandria, which most people had thought was destroyed. So Ginny was going to go find the Library after her current dig," Hermione said nervously wringing her hands, "I-I don't think she wanted you to be involved so that she could prove she hadn't gotten lucky the first time and that you'd done all the work. Some of the other Curse Breakers haven't exactly been nice to her over your rumored relationship."

"And the Library's location was the only important fact in the journal? No powerful spells or anything people could use?" Harry pushed.

"No nothing, I believe he kept a separate grimoire for recording the magic he discovered. The rest of the journal really just supported most of the things we already knew about his life," Hermione answered quickly.

"Did you tell anyone else about this besides me and Ginny?" Harry asked, the sixth sense for danger he had developed during the war practically screaming at him.

"No one, I swear!" Hermione said. "B-But Ginny would have had to tell the Head Curse Breaker to get permission to go find the Library."

"York?" Harry asked having heard of the man but never meeting him.

"Lord York," Hermione corrected while nodding.

Harry's brain froze for a second as he registered Hermione's words, "L-Lord?"

"Yes Lord York, it's not a self appointed title, he inherited it. I believe he's second generation magical but his family has a seat in Parliament and I believe holds the title of Baron or Viscount I'm not sure," Hermione explained.

Suddenly all the pieces began to fall into place: how Draco had found them and why the requests for the Journal were coming from Gringotts, there were still questions but York being the Dark Lord Harry had been looking for made sense, if not he at least could work for the man. All this meant was that if the Library was really York's goal then Ginny was in trouble.

"- so it's likely one of his ancestors-" Hermione was still talking about York had come by his title.

"Hermione!" Harry snapped interrupting her. "I have to go, I think Ginny might be in danger."

"What!? Really?" Hermione questioned grabbing his arm to stop him from leaving.

"Yes there's something wrong, I don't have time to explain," Harry said pulling his arm from her grip.

"Is that why she didn't check in?" Hermione questioned.

"What!?" Harry spun back to face the woman.

"B-Bill came by yesterday to ask if I had heard from Ginny, she missed her first scheduled field report," Hermione said her eyes suddenly wide.

"Hermione go to work you never saw me," Harry said as he took off sprinting down the Alley towards the nearest apparition point, pulling out his mirror as he went, "Sirius!"

"Harry? What's wrong?" Sirius asked a second later as his face appeared in the small mirror.

"I need a flight to Cairo now! No time to explain get me on the next flight I'm heading straight to Heathrow!" Harry said as he slid to a halt at the entrance to Diagon Alley.

"Ticket will be ready in five minutes," Sirius said as he cut the connection.

* * *

"Drake watch out!" Ginny shouted as a fireball materialized from thin air and shot towards her partner.

"I see it!" he shouted back casting a fire freezing spell just in time. "Whatever is through that door someone really doesn't want us getting to it."

"Which means it's probably very valuable," Ginny said as she banished several cobras that had been slithering towards her.

The architect of this tomb had been exceptionally good. The door from the previous room hadn't been trapped by magical means, but when opened it triggered another smaller door on the opposite side of the room that contained cobras placed under a stasis charm. The smaller door opening released the stasis spell setting the cobras loose. The cobras moving across the floor triggered a number of other traps which included the fireballs Drake had just barely been dodging. For some reason the cobras had zeroed in on Ginny heading straight for her with alarming speed.

One of the cobras slithered across another rune activating another trap as a panel in the ceiling pulled aside with a menacing rumbling sound. Dozens of scorpions began to drop from the ceiling, spreading in all directions but mostly heading towards the open doorway which currently contained Ginny and Drake.

"Drake transfigure that hole closed!" Ginny shouted as she conjured a small perfectly smooth wall at their feet to keep the snakes and scorpions back. The wave of scorpions eventually brought down the remaining cobras but their number was beginning to pile up against the wall creating a ramp.

"Got it!" Drake called as the hole in the ceiling finally sealed cutting off the tide of scorpions, despite there already being several hundred completely covering the floor of the room. "It will take hours to vanish all these scorpions," he said as he finally got a look at the room.

Ginny glanced around the room, noting that the fireballs had stopped and that there didn't seem to be any other traps being triggered by the scorpions. "Cast detection charms all over the room, I want to know if there's any more traps we have to worry about," she said before beginning to cast her own detection spells.

"What about the scorpions!?" Drake shouted. "They're going to get over that wall soon!"

"Just do it!" Ginny shouted back continuing to cast her own spells. After about a minute they determined the room was in fact clear of any further traps and Ginny stepped up to the wall she had created. " _Incendio_!" she shouted as a stream of flames sprouted from her wand landing squarely in the center of the room and spreading outwards over the carpet of scorpions. The scorpions began fleeing the approaching flames but in under a minute the entire floor of the room was engulfed in flames.

"What are you doing!?" Ahmed shouted as he ran up behind the duo and looked at the flames in horror.

"She's getting rid of the scorpions," Drake answered a hint of respect in his voice.

"Scorpions!?" Ahmed questioned looking back into the room. "But the flames are most likely damaging the hieroglyphics on the walls! They'll be unreadable now!"

"Sorry big guy, but the lady is in charge and she decided to burn the little blighters," Drake said placing a consoling hand on Ahmed's shoulder. "But, we're probably close to the burial chamber so just think of all the educational crap you can find in there."

"I will be including this in my report!" Ahmed growled as he shrugged off Drake's hand and turned to head back to a previous room.

"I probably should have come up with a better way to deal with them," Ginny said her eyes not leaving the flames as they began to die down.

"This was the quickest way boss, any other way would have taken us hours," Drake said as he began to conjure water to put out the flames.

"We're not in a race, I should have taken my time to preserve the room," Ginny berated herself, "It was a rookie mistake."

"No offense boss, you are a rookie," Drake said with a smile. "If anything I should have stopped you, being the more learned and wizened member of the group."

Ginny smirked but still didn't look happy about her mistake, "Come on, I'm almost sure the next room is the burial chamber. Let's get it open before Williamson gets back from the supply run."

* * *

Two hours later Williamson entered the Burial Chamber of the tomb levitating several large crates behind him. Most of them were empty to hold the treasure as the team catalogued it but a few were various supplies he had gotten on his supply run to the main Curse Breaker camp several kilometers to the north.

"Aw you guys didn't wait for me!" Williamson said as he looked around at the impressive amount of treasure that had been held in the burial chamber.

"Sorry but since you got to miss the cobras and scorpions we figured it was well within our rights to open the burial chamber without you," Drake said as he wrote down some notes on the golden rings adorned in precious stones he was wearing on his left hand.

"Cobras and scorpions?" Williamson asked as he settled the crates down. "Is that what those scorch marks in the other room are about?"

"Yeah boss lady went full pyromaniac on the little buggers," Drake confirmed with a laugh.

"Ruined hieroglyphics that were thousands of years old!" Ahmed snapped from where he was photographing one of the walls to refer to later.

"I'm sure it will be fine Ahmed," Williamson said as he noticed the sudden tensing of Ginny's shoulders. "I got a package from the main base for you Ginny, seemed important," he said pulling a large unopened plain brown crate from the top of the pile. "But before you open that, I ran into your boyfriend at HQ and he seems pretty desperate to see you. I made him wait up at the campsite, if you want I can go tell him to shove off."

"My boyfriend?" Ginny questioned playing dumb while trying to think of why Harry would be here.

Drake and Williamson shared a pointed look before Williamson continued, "Yeah Mr. Potter is waiting by your tent. You might want to talk to him, how he found out you missed a field report turn in is beyond me but if he comes run-"

"What?" Ginny interrupted. "I didn't miss turning in a field report, I sent it off three days ago."

Williamson looked confused as he glanced back over his shoulder towards the entrance. "Potter said Gringotts hadn't received your field report and was asking if anyone had heard from you," he said.

"I'll go see what he's on about," Ginny said heading towards the exit. "Just keep cataloguing the burial chamber."

"What about your package?" Williamson called holding up the crate with a grunt of effort.

"I'll open it when I get back." Ginny called back as she disappeared around a corner.

"Think we should follow her?" Drake asked. "To make sure she's alright," he added quickly when Williamson shot him a raised eyebrow.

"Nah she's a tough girl, she can handle Potter," Williamson said as he turned to put down the crate. "What the hell have they got in here? Weighs a ton."

"Don't know, never heard of a priority package for a team leader before," Drake answered eyeing the crate curiously. "Think we should take a peek?" he whispered quietly coming to stand beside Williamson and the package.

"It's a private package for Weasley, it'd be wrong to go snooping through her things," Williamson said his fingers already on the latch to the crate.

* * *

Standard procedure amongst Curse Breakers was to set up camp at least one hundred meters from the entrance to a tomb. So after spending a few minutes to climb her way out of the tomb itself Ginny still had a decent walk from the entrance of the tomb back to camp. As she crossed the mostly open space to the campsite she saw a tall man with black hair pacing nervously next to her tent.

"What are you doing here Harry?" she asked herself quietly.

She was about thirty meters from the entrance to the tomb when Harry caught sight of her and started moving towards her shouting something she couldn't quite make out.

"I can't hear you Harry!" she attempted to shout back still walking casually towards him.

Several things happened in quick succession as Ginny finished shouting. The ground beneath her began to shake violently a second before a loud 'Whumpf' sound deafened her. Almost simultaneously following the sound that deafened her something slammed into her back sending her soaring through the air end over end until the world was an indistinguishable blur of color and light.

The last thing Ginny Weasley saw was a large boulder that had rested between the tomb and the camp.

* * *

The sun was setting, already hanging just barely above the horizon as Molly and Arthur Weasley settled in for dinner. The house was abnormally quiet as all of their children had moved out and lived in their own homes and in most cases with their own families. It was quiet nights like these where Arthur Weasley was happy to count his many blessings and simply watch his wife as she bustled around the kitchen making sure everything had been prepared properly.

Over the quiet humming of his wife he could just make out the quiet snickering of the garden gnomes floating through the open kitchen window. He was getting too old to chase the little critters around the garden, but perhaps some of the boys would be up for coming home to help this weekend. As he mentally listed some other chores that he could use some help with the quiet evening was broken by a loud, sharp crack as someone apparated into the yard.

"Can you see who it is Mollywobbles?" Arthur asked from his spot, paranoia from the war had him subconsciously reaching for his wand.

"It's Bill!" Molly said happily as she peered through the window into the gathering darkness before heading to the kitchen door to let him in. "Bill dear!" she said pulling him into a tight hug. "Are you alright? You look pale, have you caught a summer cold?" she ask ushering him towards a chair. "Have a seat I have some pepper-up potion in the pantry."

"No mum, I-I'm ok but I need to tell you something," Bill said stepping out of his mother's grip and instead guiding her towards a chair.

"Are you alright son?" Arthur asked curiously. "You haven't looked this sick since you found out Fleur was pregnant."

"Oh! Are you and Fleur expecting again!?" Molly cried happily, the wheels in her head already turning as she began making plans for another baby blanket she would have to knit.

"No mum, Fleur isn't pregnant," Bill said running a hand over his face his eyes glancing to the broken family clock that still rested on the mantle. "I-I don't know how to tell you this."

"Tell us what son?" Arthur asked a sense of foreboding coming over him.

"T-There was an accident at work," Bill began.

"Are you alright!? Did those wretched goblins fire y-" Molly cut him off once again.

"No mum! The accident wasn't at Gringotts! It was in Egypt," Bill said quietly, willing his parents to understand what he was trying to say.

"No," Arthur whispered catching on to what Bill was trying to say. "I-Is she hurt? How badly? What happened Bill!?" the normally quiet matriarch of the Weasley family shouted.

"We're not sure," Bill said. "There was an explosion at the tomb Ginny was working in," he swallowed as he saw the small spark of hope in his parents tear filled eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he sobbed.

The quiet night air around the Burrow was shattered by a loud wail as a mother learned of the death of her only daughter.

* * *

 **Sorry for the long delay, and sorry in advance for probably not posting the next chapter for a few weeks... I'm sure you will all be fine though.**


	6. Act 2: Chap 3: The Library

**Act II**

 **Chapter 3: The Library**

The first sounds Ginny heard as consciousness slowly returned to her was a steady thumping that reminded her almost of a heartbeat. The sound was soothing as Ginny's sluggish mind fought to gather the strength she would need to open her eyes. Under the sound of the heartbeat she could just make out a quiet scratching sound occasionally interrupted by a nondescript grunt. Finally after several minutes Ginny managed to crack her eyes open slightly, hissing as her once black world exploded into bright light.

"Ginny?" a familiar voice said from close beside her. A second later a warm hand enveloped hers and with an effort she turned her head towards the source of the voice. "Ginny? Can you hear me?"

"Mhm," was all she could manage, her throat completely dry.

"Here," the voice said as she felt a straw gently push at her lips, "Drink slowly."

After taking several slow pulls from the straw she moved her head back slowly and once again tried to open her eyes. This time the room seemed to be dimmer and she was able to make out a black haired man with worried green eyes looking at her in a mix of hope and fear. Her mind seemed to be moving at a snail's pace and trying to summon memories was proving difficult but after a second a name finally seemed to match the face.

"H-Harry?" she asked her voice still raw.

"I'm here," he said his thumb beginning to rub slow patterns on the back of her hand.

"W-Where?" she asked, her voice not willing to say more at the moment so she nodded towards the rest of the mostly empty white room hoping he would understand.

"We're in Isis Hospital in Cairo. There was an accident at your dig site and you were badly injured," he explained slowly, letting her absorb the information. "You've been unconscious for almost a week."

"A w-week?" Ginny gasped in surprise. She had no memory of the accident he had mentioned, the last thing she could recall was being in the tomb with her team about to enter the burial chamber. "H-How bad?"

Harry looked away from her for a moment a frown appearing on his face. Finally he stood up, never letting go of her hand, and reached towards the front of the bed where a medical chart hung. Taking a deep breathe he began reading, "Left and right leg broken in multiple places, cracked most of your ribs, punctured a lung, a lot of internal bleeding, completely shattered your left arm had to be given skele-gro to regrow all the bones, two cracked vertebrae, cracked your skull open and you ruptured both eardrums. If it wasn't for magic you'd be dead a few times over."

Ginny had closed her eyes halfway through the list, her hand squeezing Harry's tightly as she tried to mentally assess each injury he listed. A sense of relief flooded through her as her toes responded to her command to wiggle although both her legs ached slightly. She tried to lift her left arm experimentally only to find it feeling slightly off as it hovered a few inches over the bed before she had to put it back down as a wave of exhaustion swept through her.

"M-My team?"

"They didn't make it," Harry said quietly. "I don't know how much you remember, the doctors weren't sure how badly your memory would be affected."

"W-We were in a tomb," she said her voice slowly getting stronger. "I remember entering the final burial chamber and then… being here."

"I came to see you at the tomb, you came out to meet me," Harry explained, glossing over the larger details for now. "You'd just exited the tomb when it exploded. The explosion sent you flying and knocked me backwards into a tent."

"Why were you there?" Ginny asked, ending her question with a loud yawn.

"I'll tell you later," Harry said quickly picking up several potions from the nearby table. "The doctor said you need to take these potions and rest. I probably should have told him you were up."

Ginny started to protest but before the first word even left her mouth she yawned once again as a wave of exhaustion washed over her. Knowing she was beaten she begrudgingly swallowed what were probably the nastiest potions she had ever taken and laid back down to sleep. Harry didn't move from his spot as her eyes drifted close, still tracing soothing patterns on the back of her hand.

* * *

"I've searched the building top to bottom Harry and I'm telling you there is nothing there," a distant voice broke through the fog around Ginny's mind as she slowly fought her way back to consciousness.

"Sirius," Harry's voice answered from much closer, "the notes Hermione and Ginny collected say the new library was built on top of the old library. The entrance should be somewhere in or around the new building."

"I'll keep looking Harry, but so far I haven't found any magical traces near the building," Sirius said. "It seems to be just a plain muggle building."

"You keep searching on your end and I'll keep doing research here," Harry said just as Ginny finally managed to crack her eyes open and found him seated nearby surrounded by several books and papers.

"How's Red?" Sirius asked, Ginny now saw that Harry was holding the two way mirror they used to communicate with one hand while the other held a book open.

"I feel like shite," Ginny said, happy that she'd managed a complete sentence this time. Harry's head snapped up a smile appearing on his face while quiet laughter echoed through the mirror.

"Good to see you awake again," Harry said putting down the book as he moved to her side and offered her a glass of water. "You were out for almost a day that time," he said answering her unasked question.

Ginny nodded, gently testing her arms as she tried to move herself into a sitting position. Harry let her try on her own until she finally gave him a meaningful glance and he quickly moved to help her. Once she was sitting upright with several pillows piled neatly behind her back to help steady her she finally got a good look around the room. Besides her bed the room was mostly bare except for a small cot set neatly in the corner that she guessed Harry had been using.

"Where's my family?" Ginny asked slowly, curious as to why her mother wasn't here fussing over her.

"Harry, I'm gonna go. I'll call you back later," Sirius said quickly as he heard Ginny's question.

Harry, Ginny noticed, was looking decidedly uncomfortable all of a sudden, squirming in his seat and refusing to meet her eyes. If it wasn't for the fact that she knew she wouldn't like what he was about to say she might have laughed at how childish he looked.

"Harry?"

"I'm not sure how to say this Ginny," he began, "but, well… you see the thing is… your family thinks you're dead."

"They what?" Ginny asked, anger just slightly tinting her voice.

"After the attack you were unconscious and couldn't defend yourself. The tomb you had been exploring was basically a crater so I figured to protect you it would be better to make it appear that you had died in the explosion," Harry explained quickly. "We're still not sure who attacked you and we couldn't safely get word to your family. Sirius tried but there's definitely someone watching your parents house."

"So my entire family thinks I'm dead?" Ginny asked, her hand clenching the sheets beside her.

"I'm sorry Ginny, I just wanted to protect you," Harry said.

For a moment it appeared Ginny was about to tell him just where he could shove his protection, but instead she took a deep breath exhaling it slowly. "I understand Harry," she finally said, though the normal warmth in her voice had vanished.

"Really?" Harry asked, rather stupidly.

"Yes," Ginny answered glaring at him, "but it doesn't mean I'm not furious at you. If I had my wand I'd have hexed you by now. Where is my wand?" she asked glancing around the room.

"It snapped during the explosion," Harry answered quickly. "Once you're up and about we'll go get you a new one."

"Mhm," grunted Ginny but it was clear she was upset at the loss of her wand. "And what exactly is our plan to find the bastard who did this?"

"Sirius and I are trying to find the Library of Alexandria," Harry said, watching Ginny for any sign of recognition. "We believe that whoever attacked you is either after the Library himself or is trying to stop you from discovering it."

"Why do you think the Library is what they're after?" Ginny asked.

"Whoever attacked you could have done so a dozen times since we uncovered the Vault, instead they waited until you confirmed you were looking for the Library," Harry answered.

"But the only ones who knew about my plans for the Library were my team, Hermione and Lord York…"

"And since Hermione is the one who told you about the Library and your team are clearly not the ones who attacked you…" Harry said trailing off with a grimace at how tactlessly he had referred to her friends deaths.

"That leaves only Lord York," Ginny finished. "Do you really think he's the one who attacked our site?"

"Him or whoever he works for," Harry said. "Someone high up at Gringotts has been asking the ICW for information on Merlin's Journal since we found the Vault. The only problem is we have no actual proof that he's the one."

"Alright, well have you found the Library yet? Hermione's instructions for reaching the entrance seemed pretty straight forward."

"Her instructions appear to be wrong, Sirius has been searching the location she indicated for the last three days but hasn't found any sign of a hidden Library and no trace of magic to indicate a hidden passage," Harry said.

"Well have you looked?" she asked.

"Not yet I haven't left your room since the accident," he answered.

"Protecting me?" she asked, a dangerous tint to her voice.

"Yes," Harry answered without a hint of guilt, "You were unconscious and without a wand, a Hogwarts first year could have finished you off."

"Fair enough," she growled after thinking it over for a moment, "But I assume you haven't just been sitting here twiddling your thumbs?"

"Of course not," he added, slightly disgruntled by the accusation, "I've been comparing the notes Hermione left with maps of the area, and looking into recent construction and building permits having to do with the new Library to try and find out if they may have accidentally buried the entrance to the old one."

"Any luck?"

"Nothing yet," he said, "I really think Hermione might have been wrong about the location."

"Hermione is never wrong," Ginny said resolutely. "I've known her over a decade and she has never been less than perfect when it comes to academics."

"Well, Sirius and I are running out of ideas," he said a hint of frustration entering his voice. "We've tried all of our normal tricks but haven't found a trace of magic in that section of Alexandria."

"When I get out we can go look together," she said. "Speaking of, when can I leave this place?"

"Let me go get your doctor so he can explain things, but he told me yesterday that once you wake up you should be able to leave in two or three days," Harry explained as he stood and began moving towards the door. "I'll be right back."

* * *

Two or three days had turned into four days, the doctors insisting Ginny remain the extra day for observation. Ginny thought it completely unnecessary seeing as she had been back to almost full health by midway through the second day. However, Harry doing his best impression of her mother had insisted she listen to the doctors and remain in the hospital the extra night before they set off for Alexandria.

Sirius had still made no headway in discovering the entrance to the Library by the time they arrived at the hotel he had rented them rooms in. The city of Alexandria was tightly packed, with buildings and streets packed into a strip of land only three or four miles wide but stretching for several miles along the Mediterranean coastline. The modern day Library was located almost on the shore within a large academic complex also containing the cities university buildings and one of its hospitals.

"The Bibliotheca Alexandrina has actually only been open for a few months, but the land and area have been under construction for nearly a decade," Harry explained quietly as they walked through the complex together towards the libraries main building. "Sirius asked around and no one knows for sure the exact location of the original Library of Alexandria, but it's believed that the location was very close to where we are now."

"It's really beautiful, especially pushed up against the water like this," Ginny said looking around the area which was crowded with both students and tourists. "Hermione's notes say that the entrance to the Library is located 'inland of the eastern harbor where the Light would always shine upon it,'" she read carefully off of one of the copied pieces of paper they'd brought.

"Sirius is convinced it means a spot where the sun can always shine so he's been looking for an open area and around the tallest building in the city," Harry said pointing vaguely off to their south.

"I don't think that's what it means Harry," she answered dragging him towards a nearby bench. "Look Hermione capitalized the word 'Light', she wouldn't do that unless it was important."

"Alright so if it isn't sunlight, then what kind of light could she be talking about?" he asked looking around.

"She mentions the harbor, so perhaps she meant a lighthouse?" Ginny asked glancing towards the nearby harbor.

"Of course!" Harry shouted jumping to his feet and guiding Ginny towards the harbor. "The Library was built around the same time as the Great Lighthouse that used to stand here, it's considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world!"

"Well where is it? We might be able to find another clue at the top of it," Ginny said.

"That's the problem, it was demolished a few hundred years ago," Harry said pointing towards the opposite side of the harbor from the library complex. "Some of it lies at the bottom of the harbor, but a good portion of it was rebuilt as the Citadel of Qaitbay, a medieval fortress."

"A fortress?" she questioned, squinting slightly to make out the walled and fortified looking area on the opposite side of the bay.

"It was a fortress, now it's a museum I believe," Harry answered. "Either way we have nowhere to go from here, the clues to the Library's location are all from Merlin's time and have most likely been destroyed since then."

Ginny bit her lip as the two gazed across the harbor at the stone fort, "Harry I think we need Hermione's help."

"I was afraid you would say that," he answered dragging a hand down his face. "Sirius thinks she is being watched as well which will make it hard to get her out of England. It will also be hard to explain her taking a leave of absence from work without arousing suspicion from Lord York and his friends."

Ginny chewed her lip thoughtfully for several minutes watching a trio of sailboats glide peacefully across the harbor. "Maybe we should just kidnap her then?" she finally said with a mischievous smile.

"Sirius does love a good kidnapping," Harry said sharing her smile. "I guess we're on our way back to England then."

"It will be nice to get out of this heat and sun for a bit, I was beginning to get a tan," Ginny said in mock horror. "What would people back home think?"

Harry laughed loudly as the two turned down a small side alley and vanished with a crack.

* * *

"Mrs. Weasley I'm going to head home now," Hermione said softly to the woman sitting quietly by the window. "Is there anything else you need before I go?"

Mrs. Weasley continued to stare out the window for several long moments and Hermione began to think she wasn't going to get a reply from the older woman. She was therefore surprised when Mrs. Weasley turned her head slowly, her eyes not focusing on Hermione and whispered quietly, "No thank you dear."

It was the longest sentence she'd said since they had received the news of Ginny's death. The entire family had taken the news hard, but none more so than Molly. She had been in an almost catatonic state since the news arrived, having to practically be carried by Bill and Charlie to the funeral two days before. George and Ron had once again thrown themselves into their work, staying late and opening early, even on the weekends. Bill had at least had his wife and daughters to fall back on, the same being said for Percy and his wife. Charlie had said he'd taken a month's leave from the dragon reserve, but each night after dinner he vanished, Hermione suspected to a local tavern.

Hermione, Angelina, Fleur and Audrey had taken it upon themselves to check in on Mr. and Mrs. Weasley each night in turns to make sure dinner was made and the house tidy. Arthur spent half his day sitting by his wifes side lending her silent support and the remainder in his shed tinkering idly with his muggle toys. Molly usually only moved between her bedroom and the family room, never saying a word and hardly acknowledging the presence of others.

Happy that she had finally managed to get a complete sentence from the woman Hermione hugged her lightly, unsure if there was anything she could say. Hermione was seriously worried that the loss of her youngest child and only daughter might finally have broken the aging matriarch.

"You were always such a good friend to my Ginny," Mrs. Weasley whispered her voice breaking. "Such a kind young woman you've become, taking care of us now."

"It's really no trouble at all Mrs. Weasley," Hermione answered.

The older woman patted her hand once more before turning her gaze back out the window. Realizing that was all she would get out of her tonight Hermione picked up her bag and walked out to the apparition point on the edge of the property. She reappeared in a small alley next to her apartment building and glanced around to make sure no one had seen her. The building was located in central London not far from the entrance to Diagon Alley and the Ministry of Magic. Often she didn't return home instead staying at the apartment Ron rented above Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, but he had been especially distant as of late and Hermione wanted to give him his space.

She had just reached the doorway to her building and stopped to dig her key out of her purse when a hand snaked around her face covering her mouth. She barely had time to scream before she felt the familiar sensation of someone side-along apparating her and the view of her apartment building vanished. She reappeared in a dingy looking room with no windows she could see, illuminated by only a single gas lamp on the wall. The hand over her mouth released her and she spun away from the man who had grabbed her.

Behind her she found two men in black cloaks, their faces hidden in shadows and one of them lazily pointing his wand in her direction, "Who are you?" she asked, her voice faltering only slightly as she slowly tried to inch her hand towards her purse where her wand was. "What do you want with me?"

"Hello Hermione," Harry said throwing back his hood. "Sorry to grab you like that but we had to make it look like a kidnapping, to throw off suspicion."

"Harry!?" Hermione practically shrieked. "What are you doing here? Where have you been!?" she yelled, a boiling anger beginning to build in her. "You missed Ginny's funeral! Mr. Black said you were completely unreachable! My best friend is dead and you think now is the time for jokes?! Where have you been!?"

"Hermione please," Harry said. "Calm down, I can-" he was cut off as Hermione slapped him across the face as hard as she could. The blow sent him stumbling backwards and drew a deep laugh from his companion who pulled his hood back to reveal the face of Sirius Black.

"Hermione, as much I think he completely deserved that, perhaps you should let him explain before beating him to pulp," a familiar female voice said from behind her.

Hermione froze recognizing the voice but afraid to turn around, unsure of what she would find. Finally seeing that both Harry and Sirius were looking over her shoulder expectantly she turned slowly. Standing in the doorway to the room was Ginny, alive and whole. She looked a little paler than usual which only served to highlight a new thin pale red scar stretching from her right temple down to her ear.

"G-Ginny?" Hermione asked taking a cautious step towards her friend and reaching out a shaking hand. "H-How? You died? Everyone at Gringotts said you died! There was an accident and you triggered a curse that blew up the tomb you were in."

"I almost did die Hermione," Ginny said quietly stepping forward and taking her friends hand to prove she was alive. "I've been in a hospital in Egypt for almost two weeks recovering."

"Why didn't anyone know?" Hermione asked. "The officials in Egypt said that everyone died. I saw the pictures the entire dig site had been leveled, no one in that tomb could have survived. Why didn't you contact anyone? Your family thinks you're dead! They buried you!"

"Hermione please let me explain," Ginny said trying to silence her friend.

"No! How dare you!?" Hermione shouted pointing an accusing finger at her. "Your family is heartbroken! The other girls and I have been doing what we can for them but your mother has barely said five words since she found out! All the boys have pulled back and thrown themselves into their work or their families. I barely see Ron or George because they're working themselves to death trying to ignore the pain of your death!"

"Hermione!" Harry shouted, angry at how her words were affecting Ginny. "It's not her fault. I made the decision not to tell her family. She's been unconscious until only a few days ago. There wasn't an accident at the tomb it was a deliberate and planned attempt on Ginny's life. I couldn't guarantee her safety while she was unconscious and I didn't want them to try again. I tried to get a message to the Weasley's but they're being watched."

"Why would someone try to kill Ginny?" Hermione asked, her anger being set aside as she tried to solve the problem before her.

"Because she wanted to go after the Library and there's something in there that someone doesn't want us to find," Harry explained.

"The Library?" Hermione questioned beginning to pace. "But who knew about your plans to try and find the Library? Your team? Me? You said you were even hiding it from Harry. I certainly didn't tell anyone, well except for Harry," she said pausing to smile apologetically at Ginny, "and your team obviously aren't the ones trying to stop you since they died as well. So that only leaves whoever you told at Gringotts to get approval for the expedition to find the Library," she finally paused to think and catch her breath. "Lord York tried to have you killed?"

"She's good," Sirius said. "Took Harry over six months to figure out it was Lord York."

"To be fair she had information I was only made aware of very recently and I did figure out it was him just after I got that info," Harry said defensively.

"Of course you did Harry," Ginny said patting his arm. "You're right Hermione we believe Lord York is the one who sent Draco after us in the Vault and blew up the tomb. It was only pure luck I wasn't in the tomb when the explosives went off."

"And you think he is watching your family?" Hermione asked.

"I know he is," Sirius answered. "Harry sent me to try and get a message to the Weasley's saying Ginny would be alright. When I arrived at the Burrow I found a bunch of passive eavesdropping spells on the property. It's not something you would find easily unless looking for them, and definitely not something Bill would be looking for in his current state. I checked and they're on all the Weasley properties and there's definitely someone watching the joke shop, maybe two people."

"Could they be watching me as well?" Hermione asked suddenly feeling very paranoid.

"We didn't find any charms on your apartment but we couldn't be sure which is why we grabbed you to make it look like a kidnapping in case anyone was watching," Harry explained.

"Why did you grab me?" Hermione asked. "Why haven't you gone to the authorities?"

"We don't have any proof," Ginny answered. "Just suspicions. The authorities in Egypt ruled the attack on the tomb an accident caused by mishandling a curse. There's nothing to link York to the deaths of my team or the attack on us in the Vault."

"And me? Why do you need me?"

Ginny and Harry shared an embarrassed smile. "We, uh, we need your help to find the Library," Ginny said.

"My help? But I already gave you all the clues you need to find the Library."

"Yes, but the clues were for someone looking almost a millenia ago," Harry said. "Most of the landmarks are gone, including the Lighthouse which we think is involved in finding the trail to the Library's entrance."

"Oh, well I suppose that does make sense," Hermione said thoughtfully. "Did you try going to the Citadel of Qaitbay? That's where the Lighthouse used to stand."

"We didn't go there yet, we figured we might need a translator," Ginny answered.

"Of course, I hope I can help," she said. "I'm still learning arabic, but I'm very fluent in ancient greek and latin."

"Sorry we couldn't give you time to pack, but Sirius has a credit card you can use to pick up anything you'll need in Alexandria," Harry said. "We actually have an international portkey upstairs to take us back, so if you'll follow us."

"I'm so excited to have a chance to see the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in person," Hermione said as they left the room.

None of them noticed the large beetle that had been gripping the bottom of her purse fall to the floor and quickly scurry to a corner. Once the room was empty the bug took flight and quickly found an open window to escape through. Outside the beetle landed in a nearby alley and transformed back into a curly blonde haired woman in bright green robes and wearing green horn rimmed glasses.

The loud crack of her apparition scared a cat that had been sleeping peacefully beneath a nearby dumpster.

* * *

"Lord York," a goblin said sticking his head around the edge of the office door. "A Ms. Rita Skeeter is here to see you."

Lord York practically growled in frustration as he glanced up from the pile of paperwork he had been working on. The deaths of an entire Curse Breaking team, while necessary, had inundated him with a mountain of paperwork and bureaucratic nonsense he wished he could just dump off on one of his subordinates. In this case however, he needed to make sure no one was asking any unwanted questions.

"Send her in, and bring me a fresh pot of tea and biscuits if you could," he asked flicking his wand to neatly pile all of the paperwork in one corner of his desk.

"Lord York, such a pleasure to see you again!" Rita crowed as she strutted into the room.

"I'm actually quite busy Rita, what is it you want?" he said. "And why aren't you with Granger?"

Rita scowled as she sat in one of the chairs facing his desk. "I don't want anything, except maybe some gratitude," she said. "I came here to tell you that I can no longer be following the Granger girl as she has left the country. Thank Merlin too, I've never met a more boring girl in my life."

"She left the country?" York asked as the goblin returned with a tea tray and biscuits, setting them down on the edge of the desk before leaving.

"Yes, it was all quite exciting," Rita said grabbing a biscuit. "I'd love to write an article about it, or perhaps a book. Innocent boring witch grabbed off the street by two cloaked figures and apparated to a windowless basement. Actually sounds a bit dirty," she acknowledged after a brief pause. "But then instead of rape and death she finds that it's her two friends Harry Potter and Sirius Black who 'kidnapped' her in order to throw off the agents of evil that had been spying on her."

"Potter and Black grabbed her? Why? Did they say what they wanted?"

"Calm down, I'm getting there," Rita said leaning back in the chair.

"I have no patience for exaggeration and self-aggrandizing today Rita. Tell me what happened as shortly and quickly as possible," York barked.

"Alright, alright," Rita said, losing the playful attitude she had just had. "Potter and Black grabbed her, brought her to some run down house where the supposedly dead Ginny Weasley was waiting for her."

"Weasley's alive!?" York shouted jumping to his feet. "How!?"

"Luck apparently, although they aren't pleased with you," Rita said with a menacing smile. "Attempted murder Reginald? That doesn't fit your normal style of blackmail and bribery."

York's right eye twitched only slightly at the use of his first name. "You overstep your bounds Rita," York growled. "You have no evidence just like they have no evidence otherwise they would have arrived at my office with the Aurors long before you did. Before you get any clever ideas remember how you came to be in my employment and what would happen should said employment come to an end."

"Of course Lord York, I would never think of betraying you," Rita answered quickly, scowling at the man.

"What else did they say?"

"Couldn't tell the girls family she's alive because you're watching them," she said with a pointed look. "They need Granger's help to find some Library because a Lighthouse is gone after a millennia or some such nonsense. I assume this makes sense to you somehow."

"It does. Was there anything else?" York said having sat back down in his chair, his gaze fixed on a point just over Rita's shoulders as he steepled his fingers in thought.

"No that was about it," Rita answered before sighing dramatically. "This would make a great article for the prophet. The headline practically writes itself 'Potter Girlfriend Alive After Attempted Assassination.'"

"You will not be writing an article about this Rita," York growled. "If I hear even a hint of this story in the news I will ensure you have a long stay in Azkaban with no contact to the outside world. Now get out of my office."

Rita paled at the thought of Azkaban and hearing the tone of York's voice leapt to her feet and scurried out of the office as quickly as she could, letting the door slam shut behind her. As she got to about halfway down the hall from York's office she heard an inarticulate yell of rage followed by the sound of breaking glass. Several others in the hallway stopped and looked toward the noise before all heading in the opposite direction. Rita allowed herself a small satisfied smile.

* * *

"Inland of the eastern harbor where the Light would always shine upon it," Hermione's voice whispered to them as Harry and Ginny stood close to one another huddled over the small two way mirror. Harry had cast several variations of the notice-me-not spell on them to keep the muggles from noticing. "Did you two try going to the highest point inland? That point would have always been hit by the light from the Lighthouse."

"There's not many high points around here Hermione we're at sea level," Ginny said glancing around. They were currently standing in the central plaza outside of the Citadel of Qaitbay looking out over the harbor.

"I have a topographic map of the area," Hermione said shuffling aside some papers.

"Of course she does," Harry whispered.

"I heard that, and I like to be prepared," Hermione said. "According to the map the highest point in the city is in an area called Kom Ad Dikah, it's about four kilometers southeast of where you are on the other side of the harbor."

Harry and Ginny apparated to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina complex since it appeared to be closer and then started working their way through the city to the neighborhood Hermione had identified. As they walked Harry noticed a slight incline in the roads, nothing significant but they were definitely heading in the right direction.

While walking Harry and Ginny took turns casting a spell to detect magic, although the spell kept returning that there was none in the vicinity. Ginny eventually pulled Harry to a stop outside of a small museum, her wand pointing down a small alleyway and vibrating slightly. Together they made their way slowly down the alleyway, the vibration in Ginny's wand getting stronger as they went. The alley turned left about twenty meters from the street and continued between two older apartment buildings.

"Did you feel that?" Ginny asked, as they approached another turn in the alley. "It feels like we just passed through a magical barrier."

"Yeah I felt it, the magic in the area is definitely getting stronger, I think we might have found something," Harry answered as they turned right with the alley. "Oh," he said as the alley way opened up about five meters after the turn into a large open square somehow squeezed between the tightly packed buildings. At the center of the square was a large stone tower, deteriorating slightly from age but still rather sturdy looking.

"Hermione, do the maps say anything about there being an old stone tower in an open square near where we are?" Ginny asked the mirror.

"Tower?" Hermione asked furiously pushing aside several papers. "There shouldn't be any stone towers near you, let me see it!"

Ginny turned the mirror so that Hermione could see the tower as they approached it. A large stone door with markings above it faced the mouth of the alleyway. Above the door was a detailed engraving of an owl in flight.

"The Owl is a symbol for Athena the Greek goddess of Wisdom!" Hermione said. "This is a good sign that the tower might have to do with the Library. Ginny get me closer to that writing, it looks like ancient Greek."

Ginny edged closer to the door while Harry began casting multiple detection spells on the area looking for wards or traps. The door itself glowed a strange light green almost blue he had never seen before while the rest of the area seemed inert. He began casting more spells on the door, some meant to identify spells, others meant to shatter enchantments.

"I've never seen a protective spell like that before," Ginny commented looking at the glow while holding the mirror close to the writing so Hermione could copy it down. "Looks like a locking charm but much more advanced."

"I think it's some sort of password based locking charm," Harry said, throwing another spell at the door. "It's also laced with a shielding charm to prevent damage to the door, whoever made this was very good. I've never seen anything like it before."

"It's a riddle!" Hermione suddenly shouted through the mirror. "Roughly translated the writing says 'The search for knowledge is both a beginning and an end. Every master an apprentice once was, every apprentice a master could be.' At least I think that's what it says," she finished.

"It seems to have something to do with beginnings and ends," Ginny said thoughtfully looking at the inscribed words.

"Beginning and ends…" Hermione muttered over the mirror connection "The beginning and the end… I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end!" she shouted pulling something to her and scribbling furiously. "The beginning and the end of seeking knowledge in ancient greece would be learning to read and write, so the riddle might be about the first and last letters of the greek alphabet the Alpha and the Omega! Ginny try drawing these two symbols on the door with your wand."

Hermione held up a sheet of paper showing a capital letter 'A' and a symbol that looked a bit like an upside-down 'U'. Ginny carefully traced the symbols onto the doors and stepped back. With a heavy groan the two doors swung inwards revealing a dark room lit only by the sunlight now streaming in. The circular room was completely bare except for a few unlit torches in sconces on the wall around the room. In the center was a staircase descending downwards into pitch blackness. As Harry approached the stairs his lit wand out before him the torches on the walls lit themselves, and then a set of torches on either side of the stairway also lit. More torches continued to light themselves disappearing down the stone stairway into the earth.

"Guess we're heading down," Harry said.

"Guess so," Ginny agreed as the two stepped onto the first step cautiously.

* * *

"We've been walking for ten minutes now," Ginny said. "How much longer can these steps go on for?"

"Not that much farther actually," Harry said peering ahead down the staircase. "I think I see the bottom."

Sure enough the staircase ended a few moments later and they found themselves in a large open cavern. Several large sconces lit the cavern, although the light didn't penetrate all the way up to the ceiling of the cavern however far above them it was. On the opposite side of the cavern from them was another large doorway, this one thankfully open and inviting. However, sitting in front of the doorway was the largest living sphinx Harry had ever seen and it was staring at them intently, waiting.

"Uh-oh," Harry said quietly. "I was never a fan of riddles."

"Good thing we have Hermione then," Ginny said as the two approached the Sphinx, stopping a safe distance away.

"Greetings young humans," the Sphinx said in a silky voice, sounding more like a purr than an actual voice. "To enter the Library you must answer my riddle. Answer incorrectly and I shall eat you. Remain silent and you may leave."

"Alright let's hear the riddle," Harry said.

"What is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?" the Sphinx asked sitting back on its haunches while waiting for them to answer.

"Well Hermione?" Ginny whispered holding up the mirror.

"That's an easy one it's-" Hermione's voice cut off as the Sphinx swiped it's paw through the air.

"No outside assistance," it said, "either you answer my riddle correctly with no help or you get it wrong and you die."

"Damn," Harry muttered looking at Hermione who was still visible on the mirror but completely muted.

"Four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening…" Ginny whispered quietly to herself pacing in front of Harry. "Four, two then three," she was now making motions with her hand to imitate the different number of limbs. "Morning, noon, and evening… beginning, middle, end… it's another riddle about time!" she said excitedly. "I think I have it!"

"I'm stumped, so we'll go with your guess and get ready to run if you're wrong," Harry said.

"It's a human!" Ginny shouted. "When we're young we crawl on four limbs, when we're older we walk on two legs, and when we're really old we hobble around on three legs, two legs and a cane!"

The Sphinx stared at Ginny for a moment, blinking its large eyes. Harry held his breathe ready to curse the creature if Ginny was wrong and it attacked. Instead of attacking though the Sphinx smiled, bowed its head and walked calmly to the side of the cavern where it sat down gracefully to watch the two humans. Harry and Ginny both let out the breathe they had been holding just as the magic muting the two way mirror vanished.

"It's a human!" Hermione's voice shrieked out startling both of them. "The answer is man! Can you hear me!?'

"Thanks Hermione but Ginny already got it," Harry said.

"Really?" Hermione said, unable to hide the note of surprise in her voice.

"You don't have to act so surprised," Ginny muttered.

"Yeah she was absolutely brilliant!" Harry enthused causing Ginny's cheeks to tinge a light pink.

The entrance to the Library was a huge set of double wooden doors reaching about fifteen feet into the air. The doors were currently thrown open allowing Ginny and Harry to walk side by side into the Library, which was brightly lit, sunlight streaming in through several large windows. Harry guessed the windows were magical since by his best guess they were several hundred feet underground. Rows of bookshelves stretched along either side of the room for probably three hundred feet, each shelf was filled to capacity with books, scrolls, tomes, manuscripts and every other manner of written word. In the center of the large room were dozens of tables in long rows running perpendicular to the bookshelves. Every fourth table was separated from the next by a pedestal which displayed a single book.

"Chaírete," said a voice. Floating out from between two of the bookshelves was the ghost of an elderly man wearing a toga. "Poios eísai?"

Harry frowned not understanding the man and swished his wand to cast the translation spell, hoping it would work on ghosts. "I'm sorry we didn't understand you, but we should now," he said.

"I said hello, who are you?" the ghost repeated floating closer to them and looking down his nose at them. "There has not been a visitor to the Library in almost sixty years and even he was the first to visit in centuries."

"I'm Harry Potter and this is Ginny Weasley," he explained.

"Potter? The boy who defeated the Dark Lord?" the ghost asked.

"You know about that?" Harry asked in surprise.

"If it has been written down then I know it," the ghost explained. "Every magical text ever written is contained within this Library. As its keeper it is my job to know and understand this knowledge."

"You can touch physical objects?" Harry asked. "Wouldn't that make you a poltergeist?"

"I am neither a poltergeist nor a ghost," the creature answered. "A poltergeist is the closest known entity to what I am, but I do not seek to make mischief nor am I capable of touching anything besides the books that reside within these walls. I'm not even visible to the living once I leave the Library."

"How did you come to be here then?" Ginny asked.

"I was the last living Librarian. Before we sunk the Great Library beneath the sands in 1048 it was my job to defend the Library and guide those who came here seeking knowledge. The Librarian of Alexandria was the position every scholar aspired to be. The greatest minds ever known served as Librarian, I was prepared to even take Myrddin Emrys as my apprentice so that he could become the next Librarian," the ghost paused to shake his head sadly. "But then the Great Schism happened, so until another Librarian comes forward I shall serve the Library, even in death."

"The Great Schism?" Harry asked.

"The time when the magical world officially separated itself from the non-magical world."

Harry and Ginny looked at one another in confusion, neither having ever heard of this event. "The two worlds weren't always separated?" Ginny asked.

The Librarian sighed in exasperation, "The last one to come here didn't know about it either. What do they teach you in school now? The magical world and the non-magical world used to live together in harmony, co-existing side by side to create great societies. You don't think non-magicals built the pyramids with just the use of slave labor and ropes? Do they not teach you about Atlantis is the schools? The great golden city where magical and non-magicals lived together?"

"No they don't teach us anything about this," Ginny said. "Granted our history professor was also a ghost and I slept through most of his classes. Still I think I would have remembered all of this."

"My teacher wasn't a ghost and I don't remember anything about this," Harry confirmed. "But you said the last one to come through here? Who else has come here?"

"His name was Reginald, he arrived about sixty years ago looking for forgotten magics that might allow his master to win the war between himself and Albus Dumbledore," the Librarian said. "He came here often for several weeks reading a multitude of ancient tomes."

"Did he ever find what he was looking for?" Ginny asked.

"I believe so, he was looking through the Grimoire of Merlin when he became very excited and ran off," the Librarian said floating towards one of the pedestals which held an old leather bound tome. "He never returned after that day."

"Can we borrow the Grimoire?" Harry asked.

"No book that enters the Library may ever leave it," the Librarian said, glaring at them. "Any who try shall be marked as a thief and suffer dire consequences."

"Can I copy the information from the book?" Ginny asked. "We can't read or write Saxon but we have a friend who can, she just isn't one for climbing around ancient towers and buried Library's."

"You may copy what information you need."

Ginny brought the Grimoire to a nearby table and pulled out several sheets of parchment from her bag then began very carefully casting a charm that would copy the contents of the Grimoire pages to the blank parchment. Harry walked around the perimeter of the tables with the Librarian, curious as to what else the ghost might teach him.

"When I first came here as the apprentice to the prior Librarian these tables would be filled with students from around the world," he said looking sadly at the empty room. "The greatest magical minds working side by side to create new and amazing feats or solve the great mysteries of the world."

"It sounds wonderful, perhaps one day the Library could be that place again," Harry said.

"Knowledge can be a very dangerous thing Mr. Potter," the Librarian warned. "For every great scholar who came through here to try and better themselves there was also the next Dark Lord seeking the means by which they could conquer the world. If history had been different you may have spent much of your childhood within these very walls learning the necessary spells to defeat your Lord Voldemort."

"The Library trained children?" Harry asked.

"The Library provides knowledge. It used to be one of the Librarian's duties to train those who would protect the world from evil. A child of prophecy like yourself would have been guaranteed a spot under my tutelage from the second you were born."

"Then Voldemort would have just followed me here, killed you and then tried to kill me," Harry said glumly.

"He could have tried, there is more that protects this place than simply a riddle door and a sphinx," the Librarian said with an odd look on his face. "Ancient forgotten magic flows through this place, magic that even I do not fully understand. No violence may take place within these walls or else the perpetrator will find themselves wishing they had never been born to experience the cost of their mistake."

"Maybe I wish I had studied here then, having Voldemort die here would have been much less costly to the people I care about."

"I never said Voldemort would die here," the Librarian said with a smile that suddenly made Harry very uncomfortable.

"I don't think I want to know then," he said with a shudder as his imagination began to run away with the idea. "Perhaps you could tell me what caused the Great Schism? Why was the Library buried here away from the world?"

The Librarian stared at Harry intently, his ghostly eyes seeming to look past his face and study his very mind and soul. "Arrogance," the Librarian said at last. "Arrogance caused the Great Schism and the Night of a Thousand Stars. We magicals thought ourselves superior to the non-magicals and that arrogance blinded us to the truth, the one truth that almost cost us everything."

"And what truth is that?"

"That we are not superior."

"HARRY!" Harry had opened his mouth to ask another question but before he could Ginny shouted, jumping up from the table she had been seated at, now on the opposite side of the room from Harry and the Librarian. She sprinted towards them waving something in her hand, as she got closer Harry realized it was the two way mirror. "Harry something's wrong!"

"What!? What is it?"

"I was copying the grimoire when there was a crashing sound through the mirror, I heard Hermione and Sirius shouting. It sounded like people were throwing curses at them. Neither of them would answer me and I heard Sirius tell Hermione to run before the mirror shut off," Ginny explained holding up the now ordinary pocket mirror.

"Can we apparate from here?" Harry asked turning to the Librarian.

"Unfortunately the cavern is protected, you must return to at least the tower above before you can apparate," he answered pointing back the way they'd come.

"Come on Ginny!" Harry said taking off towards the stairs at a dead sprint, Ginny right behind him.

* * *

Harry edged carefully down the hallway of the hotel they had been staying at. Upon arriving outside the hotel they had found everyone within the building placed into a deep magical sleep, the concierge slumped over the welcome desk, guests and employees asleep in the halls, stairwells, and even elevators. The hallway with the rooms they had rented was completely devoid of life, the only sign anything was out of place was the wide open door to the room Hermione and Sirius had been in flooding the enclosed hallway with bright sunlight.

Reaching the door Harry cast a homenum revelio spell which showed only one person lying prone in the center of the room. Carefully Harry and Ginny entered the room, their wands ready and their eyes alert for any danger. Inside the room was completely trashed. The small kitchen table was smashed to pieces, a sofa was overturned and was marked by a multitude of scorch marks from misfired spells. The sink was a mangled mess of melted metal and flowing water, slowly flooding the small kitchenette. Feathers and stuffing from the bed and pillows were still lazily wafting through the air as the breeze from the shattered windows kept them aloft.

In the center of the room, almost completely untouched aside from a few feathers and bits of fluff was a prone figure with bushy brown hair. "Hermione!" Ginny shouted ignoring Harry's motions to not move as she sprinted to her friends unconscious form. Beside her was the smashed remains of the two way mirror.

"Ginny be careful," Harry whispered still scanning the room for any sign of danger.

"It's ok," Ginny said, "she's just unconscious."

"That's good," Harry said. "Wake her up maybe she can tell us whe-" he cut himself off as he spun toward the sound of fluttering wings. A large brown barn owl flew gracefully through the destroyed window and perched itself delicately on the back of the destroyed sofa. On it's leg was a large envelope with Harry and Ginny's names written on it.

Before removing the letter Harry carefully checked it for any curses or jinxes that might be waiting for him or Ginny. Every spell revealed it to be an ordinary letter, the back of the enveloped had a wax seal with a large 'Y' pressed into the still warm wax.

"He didn't wait long for the ransom demands," Harry said ripping open the letter and unfolding the parchment within.

"Dear Mr. Potter and Ms. Weasley," Harry read aloud. "I should start off by saying that I have your godfather Sirius Black currently in my care. He is unharmed and shall remain that way until after we've had the chance to meet face to face. As a token of my good will I've instructed my men to leave the esteemed Ms. Granger in your care whole and unharmed. I regret that my prior actions, rash and amateurish as they were, may have soured our potential relationship to the point that I require a bargaining chip to force a peaceful meeting between us. Therefore in three days time I ask that you both meet me for lunch at noon at 58 Tour Eiffel in Paris. My treat of course. I look forward to our meeting, blah blah blah yours truly Reginald York etc. etc," Harry finished.

"Are you alright Harry," Ginny asked, still kneeling beside Hermione.

"I was already prepared to kill him for what he did to you," Harry said quietly. "If he hurts Sirius in anyway I'm going to destroy him."

"You'll have to get in line luv, I have first dibs on showing the eminent Lord York exactly how much I appreciate him," Ginny said with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

"Once Hermione is up have her start translating that text I want to know exactly what York found in the Library all those years ago," Harry said moving towards their partially destroyed luggage. "I'll start packing, if he knows you're alive there's really no point keeping up the charade of your death."

Ginny gave him a strange look as he started casting repair charms on luggage, "It's going to be strange explaining all of this to my parents."

"Don't worry I won't let you do this alone," Harry said. "It's kinda my fault as it is."

Ginny left Hermione who was just beginning to wake up and hugged Harry tightly from behind leaving forward to kiss his cheek, "Thank you Harry."

"It's no problem Ginny, I'll always be there for you."

 **A/N Sorry for the long wait the beginning of this chapter did not want to be written.**


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